Obs. exc. dial. [Back-formation from CROWNER2, coroner.] trans. To hold a coroner’s inquest on.
1602. Carew, Cornwall (1769), 112 b. Possesseth sundry large privileges … to wit … crowning of dead persons, laying of arrests, and other Admirall rights.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 215 (1810), 224. If any man die … in the forest, the coroner of Lidford shall crown him.
1673. Par. Reg. Hartlepool, in R. E. C. Waters, Parish Registers Eng., 62. Tho. Smailes was buryed and crowned by a jury of 12 men, and John Harrison supposed to murder him.
1888. in W. Somerset Word-bk.
