PAST CRIMESThen as now, it was the investigation of sudden death that formed the most
important part of the coroner’s work. It was a complex procedure which could
involve fines from all and sundry for the smallest failure to obey the rules.
Inevitably, something would go wrong, and the whole community would be
facing a penalty. If someone found a dead body, they would ignore it, or hide
it, or even drag it to a neighbouring village so it became someone else’s
problem. The‘firstfinder’was supposed to start a hunt for the killer with the
people from the nearest four households, and to report the matter to the bailiff
and coroner. The local people had to guard the body until the coroner came to
look at it–which could take days. Sometimes, when the corpse began to stink,
they buried it until the coroner arrived, but this in itself was regarded as a
crime and carried a heavy fine. The villagers of Peasmarsh in 1248 clubbed
together to bribe their bailiffs not to tell the coroner, but were found out and
had to pay.
The coroner had no medical training or advice to help him. He simply
viewed the body and then set up an inquest; at various times this would
demand the presence of all the men over the age of twelve from the four
nearest towns or villages! The first thing was to find out the identity of the
dead person. Norman law presumed that anyone who had been killed would
be a Norman (probably because so many Saxons wanted to do just that) unless
it could be proved otherwise. If the local community could not prove that the
deceased was English, they would face another huge financial penalty.
Usually, they had to find two relatives of the deceased to swear that the person
was not Norman, even up to 300 years after the Norman Conquest. This fine,
called the‘murdrum’, was payable even in cases of accidental or natural
death. It was deeply resented, especially in times of natural disaster such as
the famine of 1257/8 when thousands died, many of them along the roads as
they fled the countryside to look for relief in the towns. The discontent in this
instance led to the fine being imposed only on felonious deaths after 1260.
Another source of income was a declaration of‘deodand’ –the object that
had caused the death became forfeit and its value had to be paid to the
coroner. Deodands could include murder weapons, of course, but also falling
trees, horses, dogs, carts, and mill wheels!
A criminal attempting to escape the posse or hueandcry, or who had
escaped from the local lockup, could attempt to claim sanctuary. Local gaols
were not often very secure, and the responsibility for guarding and feeding
prisoners fell on the local community. Sometimes it was easier and cheaper to
let the prisoners escape, despite the inevitable fines. The escapee would
usually make for the nearest church, where the law could not touch him for