Nina Postupack, County Clerk

Exhibit - Duty & Disaster

Death Inquisition Taken at the Dwelling House of Nicolas Keeter, in Rochester, 1751


Transcription:

Ulster County Ss:

Inquisition Indented taken at the Dwelling House of Nicolas Keeter, in Rochester in ye County of Ulster aforesaid and Province of New York, the Seventeenth Day of September and in the year of our Lord Christ, One thousand Seven hundred and Fifty-One, by Martin Bogart, Coroner, and Jacobus Depuy, Thomas van de Marken, Peter Hendrickse, Johannes Davids, Jacobus Depuy Jun. Frederick Shonigh, Johannes Hendrickse, Hendrick Krom, Joris Middagh, Ephraim Chambers, Adam Rauch, Jacobus Hendrickse, Patrick Dover & Jacobus Quick, Jurors: Who being Sworn on the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God - Say that Petrus Oosterhout, now dead was, on the Sixteenth, Inst. Falling a Tree, Whereon was a Dead limb or bough, which by the Falling of said tree broke off and Fell on the said Petrus Oosterhout and caused his Death, according to the best of their knowledge & further say not: In Testimony whereof the said Coroner as well as the said Jurors have there unto set their hands and Seals the Day and Year first above Written -

Johannes Hendrickse
Hendrick Krom Marten Bogart
Joris Middaugh Jacobus Deprue
Empraim Chambers Petrus Hendrickse
his mark
Adam Raush Johannyes Davyds
Jacobus Hendrickse
his mark 		Jacobus Depuy Jun.
Patrick Dover
his mark 		Frederig Shonig
Jacobus Quick
his mark

 

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Death Inquisition - click to enlarge

Note: The purpose of a death inquisition or Coroner’s Inquest was to determine the cause of any unnatural death. The hearings, organized by the Coroner, could be held anywhere. After his own examination, the Coroner empaneled a jury of between nine and fifteen jurors from the community to view the body and help determine the cause of the death. Here, it was determined that Petrus Oosterhout was hit by a limb that fell from a tree he was cutting. Coroners’ records are among the most fascinating, not so much for their morbidity, but how they indicate the variety of causes of death over time. Other inquests in the collection show a variety of causes: explosions in graining mills; powder blasts at quarries; horse and wagon accidents; and in one case, sleepwalking off a sloop anchored in the Rondout Bay. Also of interest, is the handwriting skills of the jurors as revealed in their signatures; five of whom could not write their names, but only make their mark.

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