A Guide to the Page County (Va.) Coroners' Inquisitions, 1831-1946

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Page County (Va.) Coroners' Inquisitions, 1831-1946, are digitized and available through the Library of Virginia Digital Discovery as the Coroners' Inquisitions Digital Collection. Please use digital images.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Page County (Va.) Coroners' Inquisitions, 1831-1946. Local government records collection, Page County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court records from Page County.

Processing Information

Page County Coroners Inquisitions were processed around 2012 by L. Travis and later indexed for the purpose of inclusion in Virginia Untold. Therefore, at the time of processing, pre-1865 records related to free and enslaved Black and Multiracial individuals were isolated and indexed or the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.

In Summer 2023 the remaining pre-1865 inquests as well as the remaining post-1865 inquests were also indexed by M. Mason.

Encoded by L. Travis, 2012; updated by M. Mason, September 2024.

Historical Information

Context for Record Type: A carry over from the British system, the separate office of coroner appeared in Virginia about 1660. The judicial duty of the office was to hold inquisitions in cases when persons met a sudden, violent, unnatural or suspicious death, or death without medical attendance. The law did not encourage the Coroner to be a medical professional until the 20th century, and only stipulated that the local court be responsible for the appointment. Although not reliant on profession, this system of affluent white men making the decisions largely ensured that only other white men served in this position for much of its history.

Prior to the Civil War, the coroner would summon a jury of twelve white men, usually prominent citizens of that locality, to assist him in determining cause of death. The jury viewed the body of the deceased and heard the testimony of witnesses which did include both white and Black perspectives. This witness testimony was recorded and after seeing and hearing the evidence, and unlike other judicial proceedings, enslaved people could provide depositions in coroner's inquisitions, but still, an all-white jury delivered in writing to the coroner their conclusion concerning cause of death referred to as the inquisition. These causes of death would be determined by a white perspective and Black individuals were only consulted; they were never in a position to make decisions. After the Civil War, the process remained the same but the racial distinctions stipulating jury eligibility no longer remained. However, as appointments still continued and juror eligibility reserved for those "entitled to vote and hold office," the authority and influence in the hands of white citizens remained throughout the late 19th and early 20th century.

In 1877, an act of the General Assembly changed the number of jurors to six, and by 1926, only the coroner determined cause of death but they could require physicians to assist them with determining cause of death. Then in 1946, the General Assembly abolished the Coroner's office/ office of Coroner's Physician altogether, appointed instead a Chief Medical Examiner, and by 1950 transitioned to a statewide Office of the Chief Medical Examiner which now lives within the Department of Health.

If a criminal act was determined to be the cause of death, the coroner delivered the guilty person to the sheriff and the inquests would be used as evidence in the criminal trial. In this case, coroner's inquisitions were filed with the trial papers. If there was not a trial, coroner's inquisitions were filed separately and are more likely to appear in this collection as a standalone set of documents.

Locality History: Page County was named according to most sources, for John Page, revolutionary patriot, congressman, and governor of Virginia from 1802 to 1805. It was formed from Rockingham and Shenandoah counties in 1831.

Scope and Content

Materials in the Library of Virginia's collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; religion; sex; and sexual orientation and gender identity.

Coroners' Inquisitions contain graphic and in some cases violent or otherwise disturbing descriptions of death.

Page County (Va) Coroners' Inquisitions, 1831-1946, contains investigations into the deaths of individuals who died by a sudden, violent, unnatural or suspicious manner, or died without medical attendance. Causes of death found in these records include accidental, alcohol, drowning, homicide, injuries, infanticide, medical conditions, natural causes ("visitation by God"), and suicide.

Documents commonly found in coroners' inquisitions include the inquisition, depositions, and summons. Some inquisitions contain other documents such as exhibits. Information found in the inquisition include the name of the coroner, the names of the jurors, the name and age of the deceased if known, gender and race of the deceased, and when, how, and by what means the deceased came to his or her death. If the coroner knew the deceased person to be Black or multiracial, the inquest should identify the person individual's legal status (free or enslaved). If the coroner knew the deceased person to be enslaved, the inquest often includes their name, their enslaver and the enslaver's residence. Information found in the depositions include the name of the deponent(s) and their account of the circumstances that led to the death of the deceased.

Records from Page county of potential interest include:

John Wesley Bell: 1842 February 25- killed by Martin and Captain (enslaved by John Bell). Martin and Captain hit Bell with a heavy object then threw him in the Shenandoah River.

Willie Hilliard and Allison Jackson: 1880 March 16 - Jackson took Willie Hilliard, age 3, with him and later the child was found dead. Willie died from strangulation by drowning. Alison Jackson, a Black man, was charged with killing the child and taken into custody. Jackson was later taken from the care of guards by a mob of 75-100 men, believed both Black and white, and lynched by the mob.

Unidentified infant of Eaevard and Milly Williams: 1886 November 11 - child came to its death from exhaustion due to loss of blood from an improperly tied umbilical cord, as well as the manner in which the supernumerary [extra] fingers were amputated by Eliza Clarke. Clarke was the midwife in attendance for the birth.

Henry Henderson: 1905 February 26 - Came to his death by drowning in the Shenandoah River after having been pursued by Harry Keyser and other white men attempting to run Henderson, a Black man, out of the county. Henderson's death was a lynching.