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Scottish Coroners: Origins and Development of the Office to c.1500

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Abstract

Scotland had coroners, but their roles were quite different from their English namesakes. This chapter finds their origins in a mix of Celtic or Gaelic, English, British and Scottish institutions of government, justice and peace-keeping, which gelled into a coherent system for the administration of justice during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Where English coroners were independent judicial office holders, Scottish coroners were judicial agents or executive law court officers: men of action who arrested suspects and seized goods on behalf of the king’s judges. They dealt with the living rather than with the wrongfully dead. They also had quasi-military functions and some powers of summary justice when maintaining law and order. The chapter deals with the location of coroners within Scotland, their social status, remuneration and functions, making extensive use of historical documentation.

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Notes

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Houston, R.A. (2014). Scottish Coroners: Origins and Development of the Office to c.1500. In: The Coroners of Northern Britain c. 1300–1700. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137381071_4

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