Definition
An officer of the English Court of Queen's Bench (or King's Bench, depending on the reigning monarch) responsible for prosecuting criminal matters in that court on behalf of the Crown. The Master of the Crown Office held a dual title — simultaneously serving as the Queen's (or King's) coroner and attorney in the criminal department of the court. Prosecutions were nominally brought in the Crown's name but were initiated at the relation of a private person or common informer, meaning the actual impetus for prosecution came from a private party rather than from state initiative. The Crown functioned as the formal, nominal prosecutor while the private relator supplied the underlying complaint.
Common Confusion
The title combines two offices — coroner and attorney — that modern readers instinctively treat as unrelated. In this historical context, "coroner" does not refer to an officer who investigates deaths; it derives from the older sense of an officer acting for the Crown (from the Latin corona). The death-investigation function of the coroner and this Crown Office function share etymological roots but diverged into entirely separate offices long before this title was in common use. Researchers encountering "coroner" in older English court records should not assume the death-investigation role.
Why It Matters in Research
This is an institutional term of English legal history with no direct American counterpart. Researchers will encounter it primarily in materials concerning the Court of Queen's Bench prior to the Judicature Acts of 1873–1875, which reorganized the English superior courts and effectively absorbed much of this office's function into the broader structure of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
The relator mechanism is the key procedural feature to understand. Prosecutions in the Crown Office were not state-initiated in the modern sense; a private party — the relator — provided the foundation for the action. This structure was closely connected to the use of criminal informations (as distinct from indictments), a procedure by which certain criminal matters could be brought before the Queen's Bench without grand jury action. Researchers working on English criminal procedure, press prosecutions, or seditious libel cases from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries will encounter the Crown Office and its Master repeatedly, since criminal informations were a favored vehicle for prosecuting libels.
The office is referenced in 6 & 7 Vict. c. 20, a Victorian-era statute that bears on the office's functions. Researchers working in English statutory materials from this period should note that the title alternates between "Master of the Crown Office" and "Queen's Coroner and Attorney" depending on the source and period — both refer to the same position.
The office's abolition and the redistribution of its functions should be traced through the Judicature Acts and subsequent court administration reforms. Post-1875 sources will not reference this title in an active sense; its appearance after that period typically signals historical reference or a case originating before reorganization.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's and Burrill's entries are nearly identical, both drawing from Wharton's Law Lexicon. This convergence reflects the term's stable, well-settled meaning within English legal sources rather than any independent analysis by the American dictionary compilers. Neither source elaborates on the procedural mechanics of criminal informations or the relator system in depth, which limits their utility for researchers who need to understand how the office actually functioned in practice rather than simply what it was called. Black's adds a statutory reference — 6 & 7 Vict. c. 20 — that Burrill's omits, making Black's marginally more useful as a starting point for documentary research. Both sources use the Queen's Bench framing, consistent with Victorian-era drafting. Neither addresses what happened to the office's functions after the Judicature Acts, a gap researchers should be alert to.
Jurisdictional Note
This office is exclusively English and has no direct equivalent in American, Scottish, or Irish legal systems, though related concepts — such as criminal informations and relator actions — were transplanted to various common law jurisdictions with modifications. American researchers encountering this term will almost always be working in English primary sources or in comparative legal history.