| Administrative History | The earliest reference to coroners of the city of Chester occurs in 1289 when Crown pleas relating to the city were held before the justice of Chester. In 1290, they were responsible for making arrests. Geoffrey Bussell and Ralph the Messager are named as coroners in 1291. In 1300, Edward I granted the citizens power to 'choose from themselves coroners in the aforesaid city as often as it shall be needful' (CH/13). Henry VII's letter patent of incorporation, dated 6 April 1506 (CH/32), grant to the mayor and his successors 'that every year they may choose of the more discreet and honest citizens ... two citizens to be coroners'. Names of Chester coroners may be found in the city archives from the early fifteenth century. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Assembly seems to have chosen coroners from its own members and many who held the office were from families prominent in civic government. A number, including Puleston Partington, Thomas Duke, Henry Bowers and George Harrison, subsequently held the office of mayor. The coroners were drawn from a variety of trades and occupations at that time. The first Chester coroner appointed after the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, was Faithful Thomas, solicitor and all the subsequent coroners were trained solicitors. From the mid 1930s, the office was associated with the firm of David Hughes, solicitors. Since a reorganisation of coroners' districts in Cheshire in the early 1980s, a coroner is no longer based in Chester. |