Sussex has a high level of survival for records of Coroners’ inquests (1,367 survive for the years 1485 to 1688, as well as others from beyond the early modern period). They are stored at the National Archive and are subject to the inevitable ravages of water and burn damage. The inquests, which clerks recorded in Latin, have been translated by Roy F. Hunnisett, who was principal assistant keeper of public records at the National Archive. His desire was to make public records available to others. He does not interpret the documents (though he does make some statistical analyses with brief comments). Where clerks resorted to the vernacular, Hunnisett indicates the fact by single quote marks. This is the practice I have followed.

Although the inquests have been ‘edited’, the term does not indicate selection and the volumes contain all known surviving records. In an editorial note Hunnisett describes his editorial process. He says the originals ‘contain much repetition and are sometimes excessively verbose’ To demonstrate this he includes one inquest both in Latin and in a verbatim translation, which shows the constant repetition in the accounts. To take one short extract from the verbatim translation:

Hunnisett writes that he has omitted words stating what is self-evident, such as ‘feloniously’, but otherwise has deleted ‘nothing of substance’. He ackncowledges that this may make the records appear uniform. It must be recognised that the clerks may have overwritten events with their own cultural perceptions, a fact which applies to all written documents.