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Wills and Probate

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Why bother?

• Wills provide a very good resource for the family historian.

• They may contain masses of detail with information about the deceased’s possessions, estate and family members.

• Many early wills have detailed inventories attached, listing all the deceased’s possessions and their value.

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Will and Testament

A will is a written document by which a person declares his or her intent for the disposition of property and rights after his or her death, normally signed and witnessed. Originally a will was used to dispose of only land/houses, and a testament was used to dispose of personal property. Eventually the two documents were combined, hence the phrase "last will and testament." Eventually the two terms came to be synonymous.

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Letters of Administration

These refer to a document appointing someone to supervise the estate’s distribution for someone who died "intestate" (without a will). This document gives less information than a will, but may still contain some useful clues. The administrator is usually a relative of the deceased. 

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Probate

• From the Latin probare (to approve or prove). An official act of a court declaring the will to be legally binding and granting the Executor(s) the right to carry out its terms.

• A will has been proved when probate has been granted.

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Realty and Personalty• Realty: Property or interests in land, as opposed

to personalty. Originally, most realty (heritable property) could not be divided, or there were limitations on its bequest, therefore the disposition of real property does not usually appear in early probate documents.

• Personalty: Personal property (goods, chattels, credits, etc.) as opposed to real property. Originally, only personalty (moveable property) could be bequeathed, and such a document is technically known as a testament.

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Before 1858• Up until January 11, 1858, probate was a matter

for one of the ecclesiastical courts of the Church of England. As there were more than 300, this creates research challenges for anyone, and in particular, for those working from a distance.

• In England and Wales there are will registers for the Prerogatives Courts of Canterbury (at The National Archives) and York (at the Borthwick Institute, York) that go up to 1858.

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Before 1858

• Prior to 1858 probate matters were handled by ecclesiastic authorities. That's why you need to understand the organization of the Church of England in order to understand pre-1858 English probate records. The divisions of the Church of England from smallest to largest are:

• PARISH: District served by a Vicar or a Rector. In rural areas, a parish includes many villages and usually carries the name of the town where the parish church is. If there is more than one church in a parish, the others are chapelries. Larger cities will have many parishes, each having jurisdiction over a portion of the city--sometimes as little as a few blocks.

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Before 1858

• RURAL DEANERY: An area consisting of a number of parishes, headed by a Dean who is usually also one of the parish ministers within that deanery.

• ARCHEACONRY: An area consisting of a number of Rural Deaneries, with their parishes, headed by an Archdeacon. Yorkshire had five Archdeaconries: The Archdeaconry of York or West Riding, The Archdeaconry of the East Riding, The Archdeaconry of Cleveland, The Archdeaconry of Craven, and The Archdeaconry of Richmond.

• DIOCESE: An area headed by a Bishop, consisting of one or more Archdeaconries. Yorkshire had two Dioceses: The Diocese of York and The Diocese of Ripon. (Note that the Diocese of Ripon wasn't split off from the Diocese of York until 1836 and had no probate jurisdiction).

• PROVINCE: Headed by an Archbishop. Prior to 1920, there are two provinces in England:

•      Province of Canterbury (PCC) for the midland and southern counties and Wales.

•      Province of York (PCY) for the eight northern counties.

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Before 1858

A single parish may not fall solely in the jurisdiction of one of these courts. There were many factors that would require probate to be filed in a superior court: the income of the decedent, whether he or she had property in more than one jurisdiction, whether a court was inhibited, etc. Therefore you will often need to search several courts in your search for your will. It can be worth it though, if your search leads you to a pot of genealogy gold!

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Before 1858

• To find the potential Probate Courts for a parish consult Pre-1858 English Probate Jurisdictions published by the Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. These are at most Family History Centres and other genealogical libraries. Locate your parish on the map and check the colour. Then refer to the Probate Jurisdiction Tables to find the Probate Jurisdiction(s). The Probate Jurisdiction Table will suggest an order of search

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Wills are kept in many record offices

• Before 1858, over 300 church courts dealt with wills and administrations.

• The records of most of these courts are kept in local record offices.

• There is no union index. • Most wills have been indexed, and many of

these indexes have been published. • Collections of indexes can be seen in several

places.

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Where to find the collections of indexes

• Record office will have indexes for the records they hold, but they may not have indexes for records held by other offices.

• The Society of Genealogists is probably the best place to search efficiently over a wide range of indexes. A small charge is made for visiting their library.

• Many of the indexes to wills can be consulted at the Family History Centres of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The nearest is in Northampton. The indexes you require may have to be ordered in advance so you should make an appointment to do your search.

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Which court to look for?

• Most wills were proved locally.

• To work out which court is the most likely, you need to know– a name – an approximate date of death – an approximate geographical area – some idea of the status of the person or family you

are looking for

• You may want to consult the booklet by Jeremy Gibson, called Probate Jurisdictions: Where to Look for Wills.

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Death Duty Registers

• A 'short-cut' for the period 1796 to 1858 - the indexes to the death duty registers at The National Archives give the court where a will was proved.

• If the grant of probate or administration was made after 1796 and the court of probate is not known, the Death Duty Registers and their indexes may be useful

• These indicate in which court the grant was made, if legacy duty was payable on the estate in question. They are not searchable by name online.

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Where to begin pre 1858Once the decision to search for probate has been made, some thought must be given to a starting point—with the local archdeaconry court and work up to the PCC, or from the PCC down. Several factors need to be considered.

• 1) The nature of the search, whether for an individual or for all entries of one name over a period of time, and whether restricted to a specific region or spanning the country.

• 2) The social standing of the individual or family. Wealthier families used the higher courts.

• 3) The religion of the deceased. Non-conformists were more likely to use the court of the PCC in London.

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Where to begin pre 1858

• 4) The time period. There was only one central court in London when Oliver Cromwell was in power, 1653-60.

• 5) If the testator died out of England. For example, sailors dying overseas and owed more than £20 in back pay had their probate handled by the PCC.

• 6) Access to finding aids. Readily available indexes may be worth searching first, whether or not known facts suggest a different court as the starting point.

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Online documents at the National Archives

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Prerogative Court ofCanterbury wills

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Prerogative Court ofCanterbury wills

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Nothing free here!

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Finding Aids at FamilyRecords Centre

• An Index to Wills Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1750-1800. Originally in 6 volumes

• Index to the Bank of England Will Extracts 1807-1845

• Index to PCC Wills and Administrations 1701-1749

• Printed indexes to wills and administrations for the years up to 1700 (wills, 1383 t0 1700; administrations, 1559 to 1660)

• Index to Death Duty Registers (DDRs) 1812-1857.

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England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills andAdministrations),1861-1941

• A Principal Probate Registry was established in London in January 1858, which took control of proving wills and administrations.

• Several district probate registries were created around the country.

• The National probate Calendar provides summaries of the vast majority of probate cases in England and Wales between 1861 and 1941. It effectively forms an index to wills and probate records for this period.

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England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills andAdministrations),1861-1941

• The Calendar is separated into a different volume for each year. The entries in each volume are then alphabetised by surname. Information varies across different entries, but each typically includes:

•  

• * Probate date

• * Full name of the deceased

• * Death date

• * Death place

• * Registry where issued

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Ancestry Note

“Our collection covers 80 years from 1861 to 1941. We currently do not have the books for the years 1858-1860 and there are some gaps for the years 1863, 1868, 1873, 1876, 1877, 1883, 1888, 1899-1903 and 1910-1911. However, we hope to add records for these years as soon as possible.” 

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Ancestry Footnote!

• The National Probate Calendar is available to Premium and Worldwide members.

• I do not have access to these records, as I have the basic Ancestry subscription

• However........

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Library Access

• Both High and Rushden Libraries have PCs that you can use to access the Internet.

• This will give you free access to FREEBMD and the LDS Family Search site with the IGI

• Both libraries have free access to the Library gateway to Ancestry.co.uk

• This version appears to be the Premium / Worldwide version of Ancestry

• This does give access to the National Probate Calendar

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A recent question..and after 1941?

• Hi Rodney

•  

• As we are looking at Wills and Probate tomorrow, I have a couple of questions to help me with a project I am going to work on.

•  

• Following a family gathering yesterday I found out that on the death of her two old aunties, my mum was named in a will.  She never received anything and I would like to check this out, my questiona are.

•  

• Is every will traceable?

• Do I need exact dates of death to enable me to trace?

• In the event as this, where nothing was passed on, what happens to any bequests not given?

• Is there any time limit on collection such bequest?

•  

• I would be very grateful if you could help in this matter. Daphne

•  

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