| Description | This sub-series consists of coroners' accounts, including:
- returns of coroners' fees and expenses, which are arranged in sessional bundles and exhibited before the Justices in open court. They include summaries of fees, expenses and allowances of each coroner, with summaries of inquests taken (usually giving the name of the deceased, the date of the inquest and verdict, and sometimes the age of the deceased) together with detailed accounts of expenses incurred for each inquest returned to Quarter Sessions for allowances and payments. After 1861 the returns include notes of salaries due in lieu of fees [1855-1887]
- papers relating to the fixing of coroners' salaries in lieu of fees, and to the quinquennial review of salaries and consisting mainly of quinquennial returns by coroners of inquests, fees and expenses made following Sessions orders. These were made under the Act of 1860 [1860-1886] |
| Administrative history | Coroners' fees and travelling expenses were to be paid by Quarter Sessions out of the county rates from 1751 (25 George II cap. 29), while other expenses (principally the fees of witnesses) were to be paid out of the poor rate. The Act of 1837 (7 William IV & 1 Victoria cap. 68) laid down that all coroners' fees and expenses were to be paid by Quarter Sessions, and coroners were to submit quarterly accounts. Payment by fees was abolished by an Act of 1860 (23 & 24 Victoria cap. 116) which enacted that coroners should be paid salaries based on an average of fees taken during the five years ending 31 December 1859 and fixed by Quarter Sessions. |