Every so often something unexpected turns up when doing your family history. While researching the Hogg family of Renfrew in the late 18th and early 19th Century I came across the death of James, shown here. His father was a weaver and they lived at 114 High St, Renfrew. James died of a head injury after a travelling crane fell on him while at work at the boiler maker, James Henderson and Sons, Renfrew on the 30 Dec 1858.
What is unusual is that the cause of death contains the full description as recorded by the Procurator Fiscal rather than that of a doctor. It would appear that the workplace death was investigated very quickly and the Procurator Fiscal reported so quickly that the Registrar had his statement when the death was recorded. Usually, you would expect to see a cause of death given by the doctor, then an entry in the Register of Corrected Entries with the information from the Procurator Fiscal or Sheriff.
I still have to decipher most of the text in the cause of death box, but it is interesting reading.
HOGG, JAMES (Statutory registers Deaths 575/ 6) 1859