York County Coroner Investigations and Inquests

RG 22-5895

Scope and Content

From 1792 until 1962 the Clerk of the Peace/Crown Attorney in every district and county maintained Coroner’s records locally. These records are part of the Ministry of the Attorney General and its predecessor the Department of the Attorney General. From 1963 the Office of the Chief Coroner in Toronto maintains Coroner’s records centrally, which is now part of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (predecessor, Solicitor General and Correctional Services). Under the Coroners Act (Statutes of Ontario 1927, chap. 122), Coroners in Ontario had the authority to call an inquest whenever someone died suddenly or unexpectedly, while an inmate in a provincial facility, or of an illness for which a physician was not treating them.

This series consists of files, kept by the Crown Attorney for York County, relating to Coroners' investigations. The files are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the subject of the inquest.