The Nineteenth-Century Coroner in England and Wales

Volume I: The Coroner’s Office

Acknowledgements

Chronology

Table of Statutes and Cases

General Introduction

Volume I Introduction

Part 1: The History of the Coroner and the Purpose of an Inquest

1. De Officio Coronatoris (4 Edw. 1. Stat. 2): ‘Of What Things a Coroner Shall Inquire’

2. J. Impey, Practice of the Office of Coroner (London: J. and W.T. Clarke, 5^th Edition, 1822), pp. 433–434, 437–438

3. J. Jervis, A Practical Treatise on the Office and Duties of Coroners 1st edn (London: S. Sweet, 1829), preface.

4. J. Jervis, A Practical Treatise on the Office and Duties of Coroners, 1st edn (London: S. Sweet, 1829), pp. 3–6.

5. D. Noble, ‘On the Constitution and Functions of the Coroner’s Court’, Transactions of the Manchester Statistical Society, 1859, pp. 3-19

6. R v Herford, 121 E.R. 387; (1860) 3 El. & El. 115 (extracts)

7. ‘The Select Committee on the Office of Coroner’, Unknown Newspaper, 1860.

8. W. Forsyth, ‘The Coroner’s Jury’, in History of Trial by Jury (New York: James Cockcroft and Co., 1875), pp. 186–189.

9. ‘In the Matter of G.W. Hall (sic.), Coroner for West Surrey’, Law Journal, 26 August 1883.

10. J. F. Stephen, A History of the Criminal Law of England (London: Macmillan and Co., 1883), pp. 216–219

11. Evidence of J.B. Little, First Report of the Departmental Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Law Relating to Coroners and Coroners’ Inquests (London: Parliament, 1909), Cd. 4781

Part 2: The Law and the Coroner

12. Municipal Corporations Act 1835, ss. 62–64

13. County Coroners Act 1860

14. Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868, s. 5

15. Coroners Act 1887

16. City of London Fire Inquests Act 1888

17. Local Government Act 1888, s. 5

18. Return of Number of Coroners in England and Wales; Number of Inquests, 1835–39 (Parliament, 1840), House of Commons Papers, no. 209

19. S. F. Langham, Circular Including Extract from The Times, 31 July 1849, and Response from William Payne (London: Coroners’ Society, 1849)

20. Middlesex April Quarter Session: Report of the Special Committee Appointed at the Michaelmas Session 1850 as to the Duties and Remuneration of Coroners (London: John Thomas Norris, 1851)

21. Select Committee on Office of Coroner, Report, Proceedings, Minutes of Evidence (Parliament, 1860), House of Commons Papers, no. 193 (extracts)

22. Thomas v Churton (1862), 2 B&S 475, reported in The Jurist, August 1862 (extracts)

23. R v Ingham (1864), 5 B&S 257; 122 E.R. 827 (extracts)

24. Proceedings at a Meeting of the Parliamentary Bills Committee Held on 14 November 1877 (extracts)

25. Report of Don Bavaud v Morrison (London: Coroners’ Society, 1885)

26. J. F. J. Sykes, ‘The Coroner’s Act Amendment Bill 1888’, Public Health, 1:1 (1888), p. 19

27. J. H. Yoxall, question about jurors viewing the body at an inquest, Hansard Fourth Series, vol. 50, cols. 950–1036, 1897

28. W. Martin, ‘The Law of Treasure Trove’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 56:2883 (1908), pp. 348–349

29. Minutes of a Discussion on Abolishing the Compulsory Viewing of the Body (London: Coroners’ Society, 1897)

Part 3: Contemporary Debates on the Utility and Role of the Coroner

30. ‘A Looker On’, Colliery Juries and Inquests: Pamphlet No. 3 (Newcastle: W.E. and H. Mitchell, c.1828)

31. W. Baker, A Letter Addressed to Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex on the Subject of the Increase of Inquests (London: Homan, 1839)

32. R v The Justices of Carmarthenshire (1847), 10 Q.B. 798

33. ‘Cumberland Quarter Sessions’, Carlisle Journal, 19 April 1850, p. 4

34. Report of a Special Committee of Magistrates of Middlesex as to the Duties and Remuneration of Coroners (London: John Thomas Norris, 1851) (extracts)

35. ‘Coroners and Magistrates’, Morning Advertiser, 2 June 1857, p. 4

36. Observations on Coroners’ Inquests by the Registrar General, July 31^st, 1858

37. ‘Magistrates and Coroners’, Durham County Advertiser, 10 September 1858, p. 2

38. ‘The Duties and Rights of Coroners’, Newcastle Journal, 27 March 1858, p. 7

39. J. T. Smith, ‘The Coroners and Justices of the Peace of England and Wales’, The Lancet, 2 April 1859, pp. 348–349

40. J. J. F. Dempsy, The Coroner’s Court, Its Uses and Abuses, with Suggestions for Reform (London: Hatton, 1858; second edition 1859) (extracts)

41. J. T. Smith, The Right Holding of the Coroner’s Court and Some Recent Interferences Therewith (London: Henry Sweet, 1859) extracts.

42. ‘Coroners’ Accounts’, North and South Shields Gazette, 28 July 1859, p. 4

43. ‘Asses on Inquests: To Coroners’ Juries Generally’, Punch, XLVII (13 August 1864), p. 61

44. H. Manisty and F.W.E. Everitt, Coroners’ Inquests: Case and Opinion of Counsel and Resolution of the Court (London: Harrison and Sons, 1875)

45. E. Herford, ‘On Alleged Defects in the Office of Coroner’, (Manchester: Manchester Statistical Society, 1877), pp. 43-58

46. ‘Proposed Fire Inquests in the City’, Financial Times, 12 April 1888, p. 2

47. ‘Solicitor’, ‘The Coroner’, in English Justice (London: George Routledge, 1932), pp. 118–125

Part 4: The Coroners’ Court in Practice

48. M. Hale, ‘Of Deodands’, in Historia Placitorum Coronae: The History of the Pleas of the Crown (London: E. Rider, 1800)

49. J. Kennedy, ‘Of the Coroner’s Inquest’, in Treatise on the Law and Practice of Juries (London: S. Sweet, R. Pheney, A. Maxwell & Stevens & Sons, 1826), pp. 123–126

50. J.W. Pringle and J. Parkes, Report on Steam-Vessel Accidents (Parliament, 1839), House of Commons Papers, no. 273 (extracts)

51. ‘The Late Accident on the Birmingham and London Railway – Verdict of ‘Wilful Murder’ and Heavy Deodand’, Blackburn Standard, 9 December 1840, p. 4

52. ‘Monthly Law Magazine’, Atlas, 6 February 1841, p. 1

53. A Bill to Abolish Deodands (as amended by Select Committee), 10 Vict., 3 August 1846

54. R v Walley (1849), Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Queen’s Bench Practice Court, Part 145, Volume 7

55. Template Inquisition for Murder and Manslaughter (London: The Coroners’ Society, 1851)

56. S. F. Langham, Fifteenth Half-yearly Report of the Committee of the Coroners' Society (London: The Coroners' Society, December 1853)

57. T. E. Forster, Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on Accidents in Coal Mines, 25 July 1853

58. J. Graham, Pro-forma for Calling a Jury to the Constables of the Parish of Lanchester, 16 February 1874 (N.P.)

59. Form No. 24: To the Coroner of Chester, County of Durham, Notification of the Finding of a Body, 14 February 1874

60. F. Wilson, Editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, to the Right Hon. Henry Matthews Esq. QC, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Home Department, May 1887

61. ‘Saturday November 20, 1897’, The Ilkley Gazette, 20 November 1897, p. 2

62. E. Wright, The Board of Works for the Lewisham District: Mortuary and Coroner’s Court, Duties of Caretaker (London: Lewisham Board of Works, 1899)

63. J.M. Gest, ‘The Law and Lawyers of Charles Dickens’, The American Law Register, 53:7 (1905), pp. 413–414

64. P. Brown, ‘The Stone Cellars Inn’, in The Friday Book of North Country Sketches (Newcastle upon Tyne: J & P Bealls Limited, 1934), p. 47-9

65. R.B.H. Wyatt, Words to Be Spoken to the Jury After an Execution Has Taken Place (Unpublished: 1941)

66. T. Valentine Devey, Proceedings of Coroner’s Court (Easington: N.P., n.d.) (extracts)

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Volume II: The Coroners

Acknowledgements

Chronology

Table of Statutes and Cases

General Introduction

Volume II Introduction

Part 1: The People’s Judge: Thomas Wakley and the Middlesex Coroners

1. J. Grant, ‘Mr Jervis’, in The Bench and the Bar (London: Henry Colburn, 1837), pp. 123–130.

2. Sketch of an Inquest by Edward G. Dalziel. Wood engraving. ‘Then Dropped upon her knees before us, with Protestations that we were right’ from Charles Dickens ‘Some Recollections of Mortality,’ The Uncommercial Traveller (London: Chapman and Hall 1877) p. 92.

3. ‘The Coronership of Middlesex’, The Times, 17 June 1862, p. 12

4. ‘Candidates for the Middlesex Coronership’, Unnamed Newspaper, 1862 (from scrapbook in The Story, Durham D/X797/1-7)

5. W. Baker, The Memorial of William Baker Esq., One of the Coroners of the County of Middlesex (London: J. T. Norris, 1840)

6. W. B. Ryan and R. J. Churchill, Infanticide: Its Law, Prevalence, Prevention, and History (London, 1862), pp 77-79

7. ‘The Coroner’s Court and Dr Lankester’s Second Report’, Medical Times and Gazette, 29 April 1865, p. 443

8. ‘Obituary of Thomas Wakley’, Illustrated London News, 14 June 1862, p. 23

9. ‘Obituary: Edwin Lankester’, British Medical Journal, 2:723 (1874), p. 603

10. W. Hardwicke, On the Office and Duties of Coroner: With Suggestions for Parliamentary Inquiry, Proposed Legislation, and Reform of the Office (London: The Coroner’s Office, 1879) (extracts)

11. S. S. Sprigge, The Life and Times of Thomas Wakley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1897), pp. 353–368

12. W. W. Westcott, ‘Twelve Years' Experiences of a London Coroner’ (London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 1907) (extracts)

Part 2 Provincial Coroners

13. Return of the Names of all Coroners in England and Wales, with the Date of their Appointment, Manner of Election, Number of Miles Travelled, and Sums Received, 1829-1831. House of Commons Parliamentary Paper No. 703, Return of Appointment of Coroners in England and Wales, Parliament Paper Series 703, vol. 44, p. 105 (extracts)

14. E. Herford, 'The Coroner and the City Council', letter to the Mayor of Manchester dated 1 September 1874. Reprinted from the Manchester Examiner and Times of 2 September 1874.

15. Letter from the Office of the Medical Directories Including a List of Coroners for Counties and Boroughs in England and Wales (London: John Churchill, 1861)

16. E. Herford, Abuse of the Registration System [reprinted from The Manchester Guardian], 27 October 1869

17. ‘Men You Know XIX: John Theodore Hoyle’, The Newcastle Critic, 1 August 1874, p. 60

18. Photograph of John Birt Davies M.D., Coroner of Birmingham 1840-1875 (c1875)

19. John Taylor and James Clegg, Autobiography of a Lancashire Lawyer: Being the Life and Recollections of John Taylor (Bolton: The Daily Chronicle, 1883), pp. 90–102

20. R. Archer, Printed Letter to the County Council of the County of Northumberland (Alnwick: NP, 1890)

21. E. L. Hussey, Coroner’s Report II (Oxford: NP, 1890)

22. ‘Dr E. M. Grace, Coroner and Cricketer’, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 20 November 1883, p. 8

23. W. Lewin, James Clarke Aspinall: A Biography (London: Edward W. Allen, 1893), pp. 135–139

24. W. E. Adams, Memoirs of a Social Atom (London: Hutcheson & Co., 1903), p. 485

Part 3: The Coroners’ Society

25. W. Payne, Letter to Coroners of England and Wales Suggesting Establishing a Coroners’ Society (January 1846)

26. The Minutes of the First Meeting of the Coroners’ Society, 4 February 1846 (London: Coroners’ Society, 1846)

27. The Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Coroners’ Society (London: Coroners’ Society, 1846)

28. List of Members of the Coroners’ Society (London: Coroners’ Society, 1848)

29. ‘The Essex Poisoners’, The Times, 1 September 1848

30. W. Payne letter, The Times, 6 September 1848

31. Printed and Circulated Minutes Noting Desire to Extend Reach of Coroners’ Society Beyond the Metropolitan Coroners and Naming Provincial Coroners for the Committee (London: Coroners’ Society, 1854)

32. Minutes of the Coroners Society for 1868 (London: Coroners’ Society, 1868)

33. Report of the Coroners’ Society, October 1873 (London: Coroners’ Society, 1873)

34. Resolution on the Bill to Amend the Condition of Coroners (London: Coroners’ Society, 1876)

35. Frederick Mead, Legal Opinion on the Form of Recording Inquest Verdicts in Cases of Temporary Insanity, dated 25 June 1885 (London: Coroners’ Society, 1885)

36. Circular: Proposed Alteration in the Law as to the View of the Body (London: Coroners’ Society, 1894)

37. Letter to the Coroners’ Society from Mr Finnigan, the Coroner for Belfast (July 1894)

38. Letter to the Coroners of England and Wales (London: Coroners’ Society, 1895)

Part 4: Medicine and the Law

39. G. E. Male, Elements of Juridical or Forensic Medicine; For the Use of Medical Men, Coroners and Barristers (London: E. Cox and Son and Henry Butterworth, 1818), pp. 19–31

40. J. Chitty, Practical Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence (London: Henry Butterworth, 1834), p. x

41. The Medical Witnesses Act 1836, 'An Act to Provide for the Attendance and Remuneration of Medical Witnesses at Coroners' Inquests’ sometimes referred to as the Coroners Act 1836.

42. ‘A Physician’, Manuscripts from the Diary of a Physician (London: E. Loyd, 1847) (extracts)

43. ‘Election of a Medical Coroner at Birmingham, By a Ten-Fold Majority!’, The Lancet, 32:821 (1839), pp. 346–347

44. ‘Breach of Medical Etiquette at Newcastle’, The Lancet, 51:1293 (1848), p. 649

45. E. Herford, Circular Including Reprint of ‘Professor A. S. Taylor’s Attack on the Office of Coroner’ (London: Coroners' Society, 1862)

46. ‘Medical Fees for Post Mortem Examinations’, Widnes Weekly News and District Reporter, 4 April 1885, p. 3

47. Concerning the Right of the Medical Officer of Canterbury Prison to be Paid Fees by the Coroner for Attending Inquests on Prisoners (Canterbury: Gibbs and Sons, 1888)

48. ‘Performing the analysis,’ 1856 Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor and a colleague, performing the Marsh test on samples taken from the body of John Parsons Cook. London, Wood engraving 1856 (National Library of Medicine).

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Volume III: Causes of Death

Acknowledgements

Chronology

Table of Statutes and Cases

General Introduction

Volume III Introduction

Part 1: Inquests in the Headlines

1. ‘Observations upon the Inquest at Oldham, over the Body of John Lees’, The Cap of Liberty, 1:6 (1819), p. 91

2. A Tale Founded on Fact (London: Knight and Lacey, 1828) (extracts)

3. S. Bamford, Passages in the Life of a Radical, vol. 2 (London: J. Haywood, c.1843), pp. 23–25

4. A. Somerville, The Autobiography of a Working Man: By ‘One Who Has Whistled at the Plough’ (London: Charles Gilpin, 1848), pp. 293–299

5. An Account of the Great Fire and Explosion Which Occurred in Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead on the 6th of October 1854 (London: Arthur Hall, Virtue and Co. 1854), pp. 72–77

6. ‘The Wreck of the Royal Charter’, The Saturday Review, 10 December 1859, pp. 703–04

7. ‘The Brighton Railway Accident’, Brighton Gazette, 5 September 1861, p. 4

8. W. Naylor, Analysis of Evidence Before the Sheffield Jury on the Cause of the Failure of the Bradfield Reservoir (London: Waterlow and Sons, 1864) (extracts)

9. W. M. Wilkinson and others, The Cases of the Welsh Fasting Girl and Her Father: On the Possibility of Long-Continued Abstinence from Food (London: J. Burns, 1870), pp. 7–10

10. ‘Charles Bravo Inquest’, House of Commons Hansard Sessional Papers, Third Series, vol. 229, Parliament, col. 917–999, Vict. 39 (1876)

11. R v Carter, Law Journal Reports, 45 (1876), pp. 711–712

12. ‘The Princess Alice Disaster’, Manchester Guardian, 1 October 1878, p. 5

13. ‘The Double Assassination’, Derry Journal, 8 May 1882, p. 4

14. G. H. M. Read, Lines on the Terrible Disaster Which Occurred in the Victoria Hall, Sunderland, in Which Nearly 200 Children Were Killed on Saturday, June 16, 1883 (np, 1883)

15. E. M. Shaw, Report to The Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Home Department Concerning the Fire Which Occurred in the Theatre Royal Exeter on the 5th of September 1887 (HMSO, 1888) (extracts)

Part 2: Homicide

16. G. E. Male, Elements of Juridical or Forensic Medicine; For the Use of Medical Men, Coroners and Barristers (London: E. Cox and Son and Henry Butterworth, 1818), pp. 7–19; 185–199

17. J. Jervis, A Practical Treatise on the Office and Duties of Coroners (London: S. Sweet, 1829), pp. 110–113

18. J. Jervis, A Practical Treatise on the Office and Duties of Coroners (London: S. Sweet, 1829) (extracts from appendix of proforma verdicts)

19. ‘Termination of the Inquest at Shadwell’, The Working Man’s Friend; and Political Magazine, 32 (1833), p. 253

20. J. Chitty, Practical Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence (London: Henry Butterworth, 1834), pp. 351–352

21. Letter to the Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne Regarding the Death of a Boy Named Phillips on Board the Anna Sophia (1840)

22. ‘The Murder Near Queen-Square’, Evening Mail, 26 November 1858, p. 7

23. Tables of the Various Kinds of Violent Deaths in England and Wales 1852-56 with Observations on the Coroners Returns (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1858), pp. 21–28

24. ‘Manslaughter’, Norfolk Chronicle, 30 April 1859, p. 7

25. W. B. Ryan, Infanticide; Its Law, Prevalence, Prevention, and History (London: J. Churchill, 1862), pp. iii-iv, 1-44

26. J. T. Hoyle, Printed Circular to the Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne on Infanticide (1865)

27. W. G. Standfast, Poisoners and Slow Poisoning (London: John Dicks, 1865), pp. 56–67

28. ‘Child Murder in Liverpool’, Liverpool Daily Post, 14 February 1868, p. 7

29. 'The Great Disaster on the Thames - The Inquest at Woolwich Town Hall', The Illustrated London News, 21 September 1878, p. 282

30. ‘The Bristol Baby Farm’, Bristol Times and Mirror, 25 August 1879, p. 3

Part 3: Industrial Accidents

31. Circular to Convene a Society for the Prevention of Accidents in Coal Mines (Sunderland: J. Graham, 1813)

32. Broadside of Inquest Held on Account of a Dreadful Accident at Staw-Gate Pit, May 30 (Newcastle: W. Boag, 1826)

33. G. Fife, A Critical Analysis of the Evidence Adduced at the Inquest Occasioned by the Late Explosion at Wallsend Colliery (Newcastle upon Tyne: Currie and Bowman, 1835) (extracts)

34. Inquest on the Wharncliffe-Carlton Colliery Explosion, Barnsley, 1884 pp. 1–5

35. W. N. Atkinson, Report on the Hyde Colliery Explosion, 1889. Command Paper C.5787 (extracts)

36. H. D. Greene, Inquest Arising out of the Llanerch Colliery Explosion, 1890. Command Paper C.6098 (extracts)

37. J. Martin, Report on the Malago Vale Colliery Explosion, 1895. Command Paper C.7727 (extracts)

38. G. W. Alcock, The Life of John H. Dobson, Ex-Organiser National Union of Railwaymen (London: Kings Cross Publishing, 1921), pp. 68-9

39. S. Webb and B. Webb, ‘The Truth about Employers’ Liability’, The Progressive Review, 4 (1897), p. 341

Part 4: Miscellany

40. ‘Inquests: Death of Mrs Charlotte Phillips-Finchley’, London Courier and Evening Gazette, 9 September 1829, p. 4

41. ‘Death of Mrs Phillips of Finchley’, The Lancet, 1 (1829), p. 84

42. Society for the Superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys (London: A. Macintosh, 1833) (extracts)

43. ‘Inquest on the Late Master Paul Dombey’, The People’s Press, 1:3 (1847), p. 74 (reprinted from The Man in the Moon).

44. Coroners’ Inquests: Abstract Return of the Number of Coroners’ Inquests Held in Each of the Years 1851, 1852, 1853 (Parliament, 1854–55), House of Commons Papers, no. 89

45. ‘Death of a Lady from an Overdose of Laudanum’, Daily News, 14 February 1862, p. 6

46. ‘The Late Sir Charles Lyell’, The Times, 27 February 1875, p. 5

47. ‘Death from the Administration of Chloroform’, The British Medical Journal, 2:1129 (1882), p. 334

48. ‘Knicknacks’, Fun, XL (1884)

49. ‘‘Jack the Ripper’ at Birmingham’, Police and Public, 2 November 1889, p. 6

50. W. Morris, ‘Alfred Linnell: Killed in Trafalgar Square, November 20, 1887: A Death Song’, (London: Richard Lambert, 1887)

51. ‘Football Fatalities’, Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 4 January 1888, p. 6

52. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cross; or, Mr. Jorrocks’s Hunt (London: Bradbury, Agnew and Co., 1890), p. 327

53. ‘Death of a Child at Bagthorpe Gaol’, Nottinghamshire Guardian, 5 November 1898, p. 8

54. S. Ingleby Oddie, Inquest (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1941), pp. 13–14

55. ‘Deputy to a Royal Coroner’, Liverpool Daily Post, 25 March 1941, p. 2

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Biography

Dr Helen J. Rutherford is Associate Professor in Law at Northumbria University Law School, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.