Coroner's Court

[Coralie]

Hi

I found out that My Gt Gt Grandfather Charles Proudley was drowned in a local pond in Chichester West Sussex, the death certificate I was sent showed coroners details and that an inquest had taken place. How do I go about finding more about the Coroner's court findings? I am curious as to why he drowned. He was a bit of a rogue so he could have been drunk, fighting, something more sinister or it could have been a tragic accident as it all happened in February 1881 and was likely to have been quite cold at the time.

Many thanks
Coralie

[Alan Welsford]

Hi Coralie,

You don't give a date, but as it's great great grandfather, obviously some considerable time ago.

I can't speak for Chichester in particular, but do know that survival rates of coroners papers from that long ago are in general very low.

They were, apparently, considered the personal property of the coroner, so not many ended up deposited anywhere to survive until today.

Easily your best chance will be to look for a report in a local newspaper of the time so you need to check with the county records office what exists.

Because you know an exact date of death, the inquest, and registration, it's a very realistic search, that should be limited to only one or two issues of the newspaper.

I've just done this for my 2 * great grandfather who was "accidentally killed by the bursting of a gun"". It took less than 5 minutes to find coverage in two local papers.

One thing I've thought of since though. I commenced searching in the issue after the inquest, and found it there. However the report showed he actually lived a week between the incident, and death. I should probably have gone back to the previous issues, to see if they covered the incident previously, after he was injured, but before he died.

Alan

[Coralie]

Many thanks Alan, I will certainly give that a try. What an unusual death your X2 Gt Grandfather had. With my Gt Gt Grandfather I keep thinking about the last series of Who Do You Think You Are with Gryff Rhys Jones's great Grandfather and wonder whether there was some kind of altercation that was drink fuelled as he certainly had a bit of a reputation from a child!

Thanks again - help much appreciated.

Coralie

[Mike Fear]

I know that in your case this does not apply,but in Bristol the coroner at the time destroyed all the records in the 1930s.