Who would have known that originally all “Crowners” were knights of the realm? Coroners performed many interesting duties down through the ages. They witnessed trials by ordeal and trials by combat. Coroners also investigated the finding of “treasure troves”, the discovery of “wrecks of the sea” and the catching of royal fish “the whale and the sturgeon”. They also investigated fires, including non-fatal ones. A major consideration in all of these investigations was financial, designed to boost the coffers of the King. So where did it all begin?
1625 illustration, Londoners fleeing the plague are barred by country dwellers.
The office of the Coroner is one of the oldest known to law, being exceeded in antiquity only by that of Sheriff. It originated in Norman England and dates back to the Council of Eyre in 1194 during the reign of Richard the Lionheart.
In those times the Sheriffs ruled over the counties of England. The counties were divided into smaller regions called “hundreds”. Sheriffs ruled over Sergeants and Bailiffs who in turn administered the “hundreds”. The word sheriff has an interesting origin. It comes from the term “the reif of the shire”. The word “reif” is an obsolete Gaelic word meaning plunder, robbery or booty and from “Shire’s reif” we get the word Sheriff. The Sheriffs had a bad reputation for extortion and the unfair gain of money from the general population by manipulation of the legal system for their own personal advantage.
In an attempt to change this system of control King Richard determined that Hubert Walter, an astute administrator who had accompanied the King on Crusades, be appointed Chief Judiciar. As judiciar Hubert Walter was responsible for maintaining peace and dispensing justice. In addition to these roles he was subsequently elected as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Archbishop Walter had to rein in the Sheriffs and did so by establishing a new body of 4 men who travelled around England hearing legal cases in districts and regions. These itinerant judges were the first coroners. Charged by Article 20 of his declaration
“In every county of the King’s realm… to keep the Pleas of the Crown”
Keeping the “pleas of the crown” meant recording the pleas on parchments known as Coroners’ Rolls. “Holding the pleas” meant actually trying the cases and passing sentence. A body of coroners was formed in each county and so Hubert Walter gradually tightened up on criminal procedures and largely disempowered the Sheriffs.
The keeping of the pleas of the Crown resulted in these four men initially being titled “Crowners”, a name which persisted for hundreds of years and is referred to in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The Latin for “keepers of the pleas of the Crown” is “custos placitorum coronae” from where the word “coroner” was eventually derived.
Under this new system the Sheriffs dealt with the lesser crimes in their district or Borough and the Circuit Judges/Crowners with more serious cases of felony such as rape, murder, burglary and robbery which could take years to be heard as the court moved around the country very slowly. A circuit could take several years to complete. In addition to hearing cases they were also to hold inquests on dead bodies.
Coroners performed many interesting duties down through the ages much of it focussed on protecting the pecuniary interests of the Crown and not death investigation. They witnessed trials by ordeal and trials by combat. Coroners also investigated the finding of “treasure troves”, the discovery of “wrecks of the sea” and the catching of royal fish “the whale and the sturgeon”. A major consideration in all of these investigations was financial, designed to boost the coffers of the King.
The coroner’s main task across all duties was to collect records of matters that needed to be dealt with by the Circuit. So, if a person were found dead the coroner was notified and a jury gathered from the local hundred. The body was laid out, inspected by the jury under the direction of the coroner, evidence heard and the jury’ verdict pronounced. If the verdict were murder or manslaughter the accused was held for trial and on subsequent conviction their property was seized by the coroner for the King. If the offender was absent when a body was found the local populace were at law obliged to set up a “hue and cry” and set out after the prime suspect. The coroner would declare such an offender an “outlaw” and again their lands and possessions were forfeited to the Crown. Outlawry formally existed in the UK until its abolition in 1938.
The coroner had no help from medical doctors until recent times and it was not until 1836 that they could pay a medical witness a fee. Before this, the coroner had to inspect the body themselves looking for wounds, etc, and then hold an inquest into the death. The coroner’s duty to inspect the body continued up until 1980.
The coroner also had to confiscate and collect the “deodands”, the instruments that had caused the death of a person. These could include swords, oxen, carts and later even steam engines. The coroner would assess the value of the object and collect the value in money.
However, the passage of time and amendments to coronial legislation late in the nineteenth century and again toward the end of the twentieth century have seen most aspects of the ancient jurisdiction of the coroner abolished or fundamentally reformed. A number of the ancient revenue-protecting and asset-protecting roles of the coroner such as deodands were never imported into New Zealand Law.
Dr John Johnson was gazetted New Zealand's first Coroner and Colonial Surgeon on 3 May 1841. It was only a few years until the passage of New Zealand's first specifically coronial legislation: the Coroners Ordinance 1846 (NZ), which provided that "Every person acting as a Coroner ... shall have all such powers and privileges and be liable to all such duties and responsibilities as any Coroner in England." Thus, not surprisingly, early New Zealand coronial practice was very similar to that of the colonists and remained so for a very long time. It was not until 1951 that codified legislation was introduced with the intention of combining and consolidating New Zealand's coronial law. The Coroners Act 1951 (NZ) abolished coroners' juries, made it unnecessary for coroners themselves to view bodies of the deceased, and removed the previous jurisdiction into fires. Comprehensive reforms were proposed by the New Zealand Law Commission in 2000 and then implemented by the Coroners Act 2006 (NZ).
Nowadays good coronial practice helps distressed families resolve their grief by giving clear and accurate factual knowledge in a compassionate way. With a focus extending beyond making the findings mandated by legislation to answering issues raised by families, formulating preventative strategies and, offering grief reduction to the bereaved Coroners set the scene for Te Ao Marama and were probably the first of the problem-solving courts of the modern era.
Resourced from the EW. Guest Memorial Lecture: July 12th, 2007: Death Investigation and the Evolving Role of the Coroner by Ian Freckelton SC*