The First In quest.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 9, Issue 78, 30 September 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

The First In quest.

The nearest approach to the holding of a (judicial inquiry into the cause of death occurred as long ago as the year 1200, when, according to an old on the subject, “ six-and-twenty venertiblc persons were sirninionecl together to hear and consider the testimony any who could speak with authority regarding the deatli of a digger of the fields named Martin Bolsover.” This unfortunate individual appears to have been found dead in his mud hut one summer morning, and, as his body bore traces of mutilation of the most revoltin" nature, his friends and neighbours called a council to hear the evidence and decide what steps should be taken to trace the perpetrator of this shocking outrage. One Silas Hounsell, whose age was verging on the hundredth year, was appointed to a post which in presentday inquests would bo regarded as foreman of the jury, whilst a still older man undertook to put questions to those persons who were able to throw any light on the affair. According to the chronicler, this court of inquiry sat for seven hours in the open air, during which time they were refreshed with “ many draughts of old, flue ale.” The bloodstained corpse lay close by, covered witli straw ; and was every now and then subject to a cursory examination by those engaged in the matter, which ended as it had begun, without eliciting any clue as to how Bolsover bad met his death.