CORONER. The coroner (coronat or) is an ancient officer by the common law of England. The name is said by Lord Coke to be derived " a corona'," because he is an officer of the crown, and bath conusance iu some pleas which are called placita corona." In this general sense the chief justice of the Court of King's Bench is by virtue of his office the su preme coroner of all England, and may, if he pleases, hold an inquest, or other wise exercise the office of coroner, in any part of the kingdom. Lord Cake men tions an instance in which Chief Jus tice Fineux in the reign of Henry VII. held an inquest on the body of a man slain in open rebellion (5 Reports, 50. In this sense also, the Master of the Crown Office in the Court of King's Bench, is styled the " coroner or attorney for the king ;" his business being con fined to pleas of the crown discussed in that court. But the officers now usually understood by this term are the coroners of counties, who are of high antiquity, being said in one of the oldest treatises on the common law to have been ordained together with the sheriffs to keep the peace of counties when the earls gave up the wardship. (Mirror, c. i. § 3.) In early times too, the office appears to have been one of great estimation ; for by the statute 3 Edw. I. c. 10, they are required to be knights, and by the 28 Edw. HI. c. 6, they must be " of the most meet and most lawful men of the county." By the 14 Edward III, st. 1, c. 8, " no coroner shall be chosen unless he have laud in fee sufficient in the county, whereof he may answer to all manner of people." No peculiar qualification is now required, though Serjeant Hawkins seems to ex press an opinion that the persons chosen, though not knights, must be "of good substance and credit." (Hawkins's Fleas y' the Crown, book ii. cap. 9.) Most com monly there are three or four coroners in each county ; but the number varies, and in some there are six or seven coro ners. There have been instances in which, u. in a representation made to the lord c .cellor by the magistrates, that the existing number of coroners was insuffi cient for the business of the county, writs have issued for the election of additional coroners. (3 Swanston's Reports, 181.) There are divers coroners for fran chises and other separate jurisdictions. The dean of York, as custos rotulorum of the liberty of St. Peter's, in the city of York, appoints two coroners for the liberty. A coroner for the honor of Pontefract is appointed by letters patent under the seal of the duchy of Lancaster. Lords of manors or liberties in some cases appoint a coroner for their lordship. In Huntingdonshire there are five coro ners, who are all so appointed. The arch bishop of York and bishop of Ely ap pointed coroners before their secular jurisdiction was extinguished by 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 87. The bishop of Durham appointed the coroners for that county before the passing of 1 Vict. C. 64, "for regulating the coroners of the county of Durham." The constable of the Tower of Loudon appoints a coroner for the Tower liberty. The coroner for the city and liberty of Westminstes is appointed by the dean and chapter. By a charter of Edward IV. the mayor and common alty of London may-grant the office of coroner to whom they please, and no co roner except the city coroner shall have any power in the city.
Coroners of counties are elected under the direction of the scat. 28 Edw. III. c. 6, by the freeholders in the county court, in the same manner as sheriffs and con servators of the peace formerly were ; the election takes place by virtue of an an cient king's writ, De Coronatore Rh ymed°, returnable in chancery. The 58
Geo. III. c. 95, which made provision for conducting these elections, similar to those for the election of knights of the shire, was repealed in 1844 by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 92, which substituted other regu lations on the ground that the former mode of election was inconvenient and attended with great and unnecessary ex pense. This act applies only to county coroners. The coroners of the City of London and Borough of Southwark, of the Queen's Household and the Verge of the Queen's Palace, and Admiralty coroners, are specially exempted from the operation of the act. Counties may be divided by the justices into two or more districts for the purposes of this act, and alterations may be made in existing divisions. The justices, in making such divisions, are in the first place to petition her majesty, and notice is to be given to each coroner by the clerk of the peace of the time when the justices will take such pe tition into consideration. Any coroner of the county may present a petition to her majesty touching the proposed division or alteration of districts. Her majesty, with the advice of the privy council, may order that such county shall be divided into so many districts as may be considered convenient, and determine at what place within each district the court for the election of coroner for such district shall be held. The justices are to direct the clerk of the peace to make out a list of the several parishes, town ships, or in each of the coroner's districts into which the county is divided, specifying the place within each district at which the court for the election of coroner is to be held, the place or places at which the poll is to be taken, and the parishes or places attached to each poll ing place. The justices may then assign one district to each coroner ; and when ever a vacancy occurs the election is to be made in the manner prescribed by the act, which provides that the coroner shall reside in the district for which he is elected, or in some place wholly or partly surrounded by such district, or not more than two miles beyond its outer boundary; that the election must be made in the district ; and that the coroner shall be chosen by a majority of persons duly qulified who shall reside in such district : no voter can poll out of the district where his property lies. Within not less than seven or not more than fourteen days after the sheriff shall have received the writ De Coronatore Elifendo, he is re quired to hold in the district for which a vacancy has occurred a special county court for the election ; and if a poll be demanded, it may be kept open for two days, eight hours each day, from eight o'clock in the morning. The sheriff is to erect polling-booths ; poll-clerks are to be sworn ; and an inspector of poll-clerks is to be appointed on the nomination of each one of the candidates. Electors may be required by or on behalf of any candidate to make oath respecting their qualification. The result of the poll is to be declared by the sheriff. The coroner, although elected for a district, is to be considered as a coroner for the whole county ; but he is only to hold inquests within his own district, except in case of the illness or unavoidable absence of the coroner for another district ; and his in quisition must certify the cause of his holding such inquest.