[Manuscript] Contemporary copy of the Coroner's Inquest on Willam Cherry's Death (Swanscombe, Kent). WITH additional revealing information about expenditure (inc. wine for the jury)..

Two pages, folio, stained and foxed, text clear and complete. RECTO: top left list of six names preceded by jur; main text reveals the Coroner in Swanscombe, Kent, as Robert Watson and the deceased as William Cherry, aged 74, lying dead by & upon the oaths of: [fifteen names listed] who have been impanelled to inquire for the Queen into how William Cherry met his end. The incident is described - Cherry was being driven to Canterbury in a Chariot with black horses and the footboard gave way under the Coachman [presumably Cherry] who fell and was run over by the chariot, then dragged by the uncontrollable horses down a hill in Stone. Cherry died later. Chariot and furniture become forfeit (now in the custody of Henry Partridge of the Middle Temple). Jurors names written again. VERSO: in the same hand, heading April 1st 1705 M[emoran]d[um] of things to be done this day | p[ai]d [?] dono 2[s]6[d] | To discharge the nurse & give her the things my ma[ster] dyed in [facto? i.e. done] |To discharge the Parish [dues] [line through] | Tho Smith - given 5d | The Scotchman given 5d | To spek about the horses | Mr Jarvis paid the Coroner at Dartford 10d & the officer who had the warrant 2s-6d || pd Mr Partiridge (lawyer) 5 ginneys [guineas] & three pounds in silver | pd for wine for the jury 15s | To Tho: Collyer High Constable of the Hundred [?] for warning the jury 5s within the Bishop of Rochester Liberty. The fyne due to the Bishop of Rochester living at Bromley in Kent to be pd at Michaelmas Court. | [...]