Suicide in Scotland 1870

[becky81]

Hello,
My Ancestor John Don born about 1819 died 24th May 1870, I have the record from Scotland's People and his cause of death was Suicide by Hanging and the informant was his son.

What I'd like to know is if it would be likely that there was an inquest and where I would look to see if any records relate to it?

I also found a record on Ancestry of a his obituary in the local newspaper but it just says that he committed suicide, no mention of any investigation.

Thanks.

Becky

[Raven]

Becky is the obit in the Perthshire Newspaper index??

[becky81]

No, the obituary was in the index for Anstruther Easter in Fife.

[deletejb]

On your certificate is there something like Cor Ent Ref written at side. ?

Sometimes there is a Corrected Entry with ref number written at the side of certificates. This ref number links to the court document -- I have them on marriage certs when the couple divorced. Also where the wrong name was registered at birth and on a sudden death.

[Raven]

I had one on Ancestry for the Pethshire Newspapers.. I contacted the AK Bell Library in Perth and they kindly sent me a photocopy of the obit for my Gr Grandfather... Why not try contacting the mainl library... maybe Crieff..??

[Cath RJ]

Hi,
I have an accidental death in Scotland in 1858. It would appear that if a death wasn't straightforward ie natural causes, old age etc. there had to be a postmortem. The results of the "precognition" were sent to the procurator fiscal for a report. Have you tried the Procurator Fiscal's Office for the area? I also agree with Jan - have you looked for a RCE?
Sorry I can't help any further as my death wasn't unusual enough to have a Procurator Fiscal's report done, the cert. just says that results of a precognition were received at a later date. In these early years they didn't have RCE pages connected to unexplained deaths. The results of "mine" seem to have been lost!

"Inquest does not exist as a legal term in Scots law but there is an equivalent investigation into sudden deaths by the Procurator Fiscal."

"Precognition" - Interview of all key witnesses, gathering together of all relevant productions, documents and materials to ascertain the evidence available to establish what happened, how it happened and who, if anyone, was responsible."

Don't know if this will help but it might point you in the right direction.

Cath.

[becky81]

Thats very interesting thank you!

The image of the deat record doesn't appear to have any additional notes, have a look (give me a min to post a link)

John_Don_Death

[JBee]

I have a more recent one

I had to purchase the certificate which came with Cause of death "Coal gas poisoning".

On the reverse was a printed form of Register of Corrected Entries which gave a more detailed report of when and where died ie seen alive at **** and found dead at **** but didn't alter the cause of death or include the word suicide.

[Cath RJ]

This is what mine looks like



It's almost impossible to read so I asked Scotlandspeople and the SRO for help and that's where most of the info' I have came from.

Apparentlry it says "Result of precognition since received." but for a while we thought it might say suicide too.

Your case is probably different as it's quite a bit later.

[Just Gillian]

I have a "coal gas poisoning" cause of death from the 1820s in Clackmannanshire. The RCE entry amended the cause to "Coal gas poisoning (Suicide)" and gave "between" times for the time of death.