CORONER. A very ancient and important county officer in England. Ireland. and Wales, whose original duty appears to have been that of keeping, as distinguished from holding, the pleas of the Crown: for coroners are designated in the earliest charters alluding to the office as eustodes placitorum corona and coronet arcs. The exact date of origin of the office is not known, but the better modern view is that it was at least firmly established under Henry II. in the twelfth century. From England the office of coroner has arisen in the United States and in the English colonies.
The chief duty of the coroner is that which is described by Lord Chancellor Campbell when he says: "The coroner, next to the sheriff, is the most important civil officer in the county, and he performs the duty of the sheriff when the sheriff is disabled front doing so; and there are peculiar duties prescribed to him, more particu larly to inquire into the manner in which per sons have come to their deaths where there is any reason to suppose that it may not have been by natural means; and, on the inquiry, the jury being sworn, the jury have all the rights of a grand jury to find a verdict of murder, and on that finding the accused may be tried and may be sentenced to death." The coroner's duties in respect to this inquiry as to suspicious deaths has hardly varied at all from the fourteenth century to the present time, except as regards the methods of procedure, such as summoning pros, witnesses, etc.
Besides his duty to inquire into causes of sus picious deaths, his other peculiar duties in cluded that of inquiring concerning treasure trove—who were the finders, and where the treasure is, or whether any one be suspected of having found it and concealed it—and, formerly, the duty of inquiring concerning shipwrecks, and certifying whether it was a wreck or not (see WRECK) ; of holding inquests on royal fish ; in quiring into the goods of felons; and the holding of inquests on certain felonies, such as the breaking of a house and the sudden injury of a person under suspicious circumstances. Until
188S, in England, the coroners were chosen by the freeholders at a county court held for the purpose, but by the Local Government Act the county council were made the electors. The coroner is also ex officio a conservator of the King's peace (see CONSERVATOR OF TILE PEACE), and in this capacity may act as a magistrate; his ministerial office is exercised only when he acts in place of the sheriff.
In the United States and in some of the colo nies of Great Britain, the duties and powers of coroners have been enlarged, or restricted, and in some eases the office has been entirely abol ished. The coroner is vested by statute in some jurisdictions with the power and duty to investi gate into the causes and origins of fires which appear to be of incendiary origin or of such a nature as to require investigation; but ex officio the coroner has no authority to inquire into the cause or origin of a fire except when death has resulted from it.
For a fuller description of the manner of (loosing coroners and of their duties and powers, the statutes of the jurisdiction must be consulted.
Consult: Encijclopccdia of the Lairs of Eng land, vol. iii. (London, 1897) ; Binmorc, In structions for Sheriffs, Coroners, and Constables (2d ed., Chicago, 1894) Bo•de•n D. Smith, Powers, Duties, and Liabilities of Sheriffs, Coro ners, and Constables (2d ed., Albany. 1897) ; Jarvis, Office and Duties of Coroners, with Porms and Precedents (5th ed., London. 1888) : Ste phen, History of the Criminal Law (London, ISS3) ; Pollock and Alaitland, History of Eng lish Late (2d ed., London and Boston, 1899) ; Boys, Treatise on Coroners (Toronto, 1893).