Hoyle and Trouble: Fire burn and cauldron bubble: The coroner in an emerging industrial society

Outline of PhD Research.The focus is John Theodore Hoyle. The dates for the working title of the research have been chosen because 1831 was the year that Hoyle qualified as a solicitor and Chancery Master Extraordinary and 1885 is the year he died. However, whilst he became a deputy coroner on qualification as a solicitor , he was not the elected as full borough coroner until 1857 and therefore the bulk of the analysis will be of the period 1857-1884. The aim of the project is to examine his life and career in order to answer the research questions that I have identified: What does the people's judge mean? What was the coroner's role in an emerging industrial society? Is the work of the coroner defined by the politics of place? How did the coroner deal with the developing law in an emerging industrial society? Can specific attributes be identified in a legally qualified rather than a medical coroner? Was the experience and pattern identified in studies elsewhere reflected in Newcastle?