Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Fall 2015, Vol 41, No. 3 | Page 15

The role of lay persons within the judicial
system has eroded over time. Today jury
trials are rare. More rarely, grand juries are
summoned. Gone is the court of inquest,
the justice of the peace jury, and qui tam
suits that once allowed citizens to enforce
the civil law and enjoy the benefit of all or
a portion of the penalty set in statute.60 Assistant judges sit in the civil and family divisions of the superior court, and perform
other valuable functions in the court system, contributing their experience and wisdom, although few are lawyers. The lay influence is from the other side of the bench,
as a growing number of pro se litigants are
appearing in court today. As the courts
have become more professional over time,
the judicial system has become more protective of rights. The early inquest was not
concerned with that. Someone died. A jury
of citizens was chosen, who viewed the
body, took evidence, and made a ruling,
often naming the killer. Sometimes they
called it murder, a judgment beyond their
authority.
____________________
Paul S. Gillies, Esq., is a partner in the
Montpelier firm of Tarrant, Gillies & Richardson and is a regular contributor to the
Vermont Bar Journal. A collection of his columns has been published under the title of
Uncommon Law, Ancient Roads, and Other
Ruminations on Vermont Legal History by
the Vermont Historical Society.
____________________

13 V.S.A. Chapter 161: Inquests as to Criminal
Matters.
2
Smith v. Burnham, 1 Aik. 84 (1826).
3
Town of Manchester v. Town of Rupert, 6 Vt.
291 (1834).
4
Gilman v. Thompson, 11 Vt. 643 (1839).
5
1 Records of the Vermont Governor and Council 332-336 (E.P. Walton ed., 1873).
6
Rev. F.J. Fairbanks, Westminster, in Abby Maria Hemenway, Vermont Historical Gazetteer 575
(1891); Rowland Robinson, Vermont: A Study of
Independence 96 (1892); Frank Lester Greene, Vermont, the Green Mountain State: Past, Present,
Prospective 7 (1907); 1 Governor and Council supra note 5, at 330.
7
Jessie Haas, Revolutionary Westminster: From
Massacre to Statehood (2011).
8
Benjamin H. Hall, History of Eastern Vermont
752 (1858).
9
Id., 225, 675; Timothy Olcutt was county coroner. Hass, supra note 7, at 71.
10
Philip Barnard, Mark Kamrath, & Stephen Shapiro, Revising Charles Brockden Brown: Culture,
Politics, and Sexuality in the Early Republic 326
(2004).
11
The full report can be downloaded at http://
www.researchgate.net/publication/228658439_
The_historical_ violence_database_A_collaborative_research_project_on_the_history_of_violent_crime_violent_death_and_collective_violence.
12
Id. As each of the following synopses are
found in the database, excessive, repetitive footnotes are elided.
13
Farmer’s Museum, May 5, 1800.
14
Rutland Herald, Dec. 17, 1804, Jan. 5, 1805;
1

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https://www.google.com/search?q =deborah+
mckirkland&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tb
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nt+1804.
15
Rutland Herald, Sept. 21, 1805.
16
Hemenway, supra note 6, at 294.
17
Windham County Superior Court 2: 235).
18
Norman Williams Correspondence, Vermont
Historical Society; Henry Hobart Vail, Pomfret,
Vermont (1930).
19
Caledonia County Superior Court 3: 271.
20
Gary Shattuck, Insurrection, Corruption & Murder in Early Vermont 312-314 (2014).
21
Farmer’s Cabinet, Dec. 4, 1813.
22
L.L. Dutcher, The History of St. Albans, Vt.
294-295 (1872).
23
Hemenway, supra note 6, at 294-296.
24
Vermont Mirror, June 7 and July 12, 1815;
Rutland Herald, Nov. 7, 1820.
25
New Hampshire Patriot, July 12, 1824.
26
Rutland Herald, June 29, 1824.
27
Bertha B. Hanson, Bertha’s Book: A View of
Starksboro’s History 51-52 (1998).
28
Rutland Herald, Oct. 9, 1839.
29
Rutland County Superior Court Records,
27:129.
30
Burlington Free Press, Oct. 1, 1841.
31
Burlington Free Press, Nov. 18, 1842.
32
L.L. Dutcher, supra note 22, at 300-301.
33
“An act concerning sudden and untimely
deaths,” Feb. 20, 1779, 12 State Papers of Vermont 108.
34
“An act concerning sudden and untimely
deaths,” Feb. 27, 1787, 14 State Papers of Vermont 175-176.
35
“An act, directing the mode of taking inquisition on the body of a person found dead, by casualty or violence,” Laws of Vermont of a Publick
and Permanent Nature, Chap. XXXV, 275-278
(1825).
36
“An act, directing the mode of taking inquisition on the body of a person found dead, by
casualty or violence,” Laws of Vermont of a Publick and Permanent