Volume 53, Preface 41 View pdf image (33K) |
Early Maryland County Courts. xli not a member of the Council, might be appointed sheriff and coroner of a county by the Chief Judge, who was the Governor (Arch. Md. i, 55), and this procedure was followed as late as in November 1656 (Arch. Md. iii, 329). On January 29, 1637/8 the Governor appointed Thomas Baldridge of St. Mary's to be sheriff and coroner during his pleasure, who held an inquest two days later (Arch. Md. iii, 6i; iv, 9); and April 30, 1640, commissioned John Robinson, High Constable, as coroner for St. Clement's Hundred in St. Mary's, and defined his duties as such (Arch. Md. iii, 91). Juries of inquest upon per sons dead by violence were until 1666 summoned by the sheriff, the constable, or a justice. The reference in Hanson's Old Kent to a “coroner's jury” held in January 1652/3 is doubtless inaccurate, Hanson probably prefixing coroner to the original entry, as the sheriff probably officiated in both capacities (Arch. Md. liv, 7). In the sixties we find not only the sheriff, but constables and even justices, functioning as coroners. The court records of Charles County show that on September 16, 1661, the chief judge authorized a constable to summon a jury to view the body of a drowned man (pp. 140-141) ; and again without any special order appearing in the record, on May 4, 1663, a jury of inquest was held by Edward Swan, “Constable and Crowner “, over a drowned man in this county (pp. 362-363). At a later session held in October, 1663, in Charles County there is the record of a jury of inquest over a dead body, which seems to have been held by William Marshall, one of the justices, who apparently functioned as coroner (pp. 401-402). There is a Provincial Court record under date of October 16, 1665, of a jury of inquest impanelled by John Lawson, “Sheriffe & coroner” of St. Mary's County, which indicates that the sheriff there exercised the duties of both offices (Arch. Md. xlix, 5 io). In 1666 the Assembly passed an act directing the Governor from time to time to appoint qualified men as coroners in the several counties, directing that the oath of the same form as that used in England for coroners be administered. (Arch. Md. ii, 130-131). Announcement was made at the September, 1666, Somerset County Court of the appointment of William Stevens as coroner by the Governor, acting under the law of April, 1666, and the form of oath to be taken by him was recorded (Arch. Md. liv, 638). A different individual was appointed sheriff, showing that the offices of sheriff and coroner were no longer combined. Stevens was reappointed coroner in 1670 (Arch. Md. v. 70). The Talbot County tax levy for 1668 contains an item for the payment of 360 pounds of tobacco “To the Corroner Mr Tho. South “, and the 1670 levy shows 1250 pounds of tobacco payable to Tho. Vaughan for coroner's fees for five persons (Arch. Md. liv, 428, 481). In 1671 the Assembly passed an act fixing the fees of coroners, which were placed at a somewhat higher rate than the fees paid in England, the act reciting that the latter rate was too low for conditions as found in this Province (Arch. Md. ii, 292-294), and the form of oath is recorded in the Council Proceedings (Arch. Md. v, 96-97). The duties of coroner as defined by the act of 1671 included the holding of inquests over the bodies of those dead by misadventure, murder, suicide, or other forms of violence, as well as the serving of writs or subpoenas upon a sheriff in any suit to which he was a party, or for the arrest of a sheriff. It should be noted |
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Volume 53, Preface 41 View pdf image (33K) |
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