Obs. exc. dial. Also 5 Sc. -ar(e, -air, 5–6 -ar, 6 -ere. [A popular by-form of CORONER, assimilated to CROWN, and corresp. to the med.L. form corōnātor: cf. CROWN v.2]
1. = CORONER. (Now only dialectal, or with allusion to the passage in Hamlet.)
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xxiv. 120. Til Elandonan his crownare past, For til arest mysdoaris þare.
1487. Act 3 Hen. VII., c. 2. The crowner upon the viewe of the body dede shuld inquire of hym … that had don that deth or murder.
1577. Harrison, England, II. iv. (1877), I. 102. There are … crowners, whose dutie is to inquire of such as come to their death by violence.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. i. 4. The Crowner hath sate on her, and finds it Christian buriall. Ibid., 24. Other. But is this law? Clo. I marry is’t, Crowners Quest Law.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1877), V. 166. Find the Crowner’s jury sitting.
1823. Byron, Juan, XI. xvii. As soon as ‘Crowner’s quest’ allow’d.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., I. 192. The crowner would be gettin’ to hear on it.
2. Sc. He who had command of the troops raised in one county. Improperly for colonel.
1639. Baillie, Letters (1775), I. 164. Renfrew had chosen Montgomery their crowner.
1654. Nicoll, Diary (1836), 125. A … feast, prepared by the Toun of Edinburgh for him [Monk] and his speciall crowneris.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., VI. lxxi. 249. A few trained officers, the most important among whom was Crowner or Colonel Gun.
