Our five-part blog series continues by examining another record type to consider when baptisms, marriages, and burial records can’t be discovered for our ancestors. In part one we looked at the parish chest, in part two, tax records, and this blog post will focus on wills and probate.
Wills & Probate
Another resource beyond the parish is probate records. Wills are incredibly useful in that they often name the surviving family members (i.e., heirs) of the deceased. It should be noted that wills in Great Britain before the 19th century were typically made by the wealthy; it was uncommon for the average farmer or laborer to go through the expense of creating a will, especially since they had little property or wealth to bequeath. If, however, your ancestor was in a position to leave a will (or if they died post-1800), here is how you would locate it:
Post-1858
From 1858 onwards, the Probate Registry in the British government took charge of proving wills and administrations. An index was created called the National Probate Calendar, which included the following:
- The name of the deceased
- Address of the deceased
- Date and place of probate
- Names of principal heirs
- Total value of property (in £)
The National Probate Calendar is organized by surname and probate year and is searchable on Ancestry. You can use the information found in the Calendar to order a copy of your ancestor’s probate record through the Probate Registry (https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate). Copies typically cost £1.50. The image below shows an example of the calendar. A sample page from the National Probate Calendar.1
A sample page from the National Probate Calendar
Pre-1858
Probate records created before 1858 were handled by the Church of England, specifically by the Church’s ecclesiastical courts. It’s important to understand the hierarchy of these courts because the value and location of your ancestor’s property determined which court probated the will. The courts were organized as follows:
- Prerogative (York or Canterbury)
- Diocese (aka Court Consistory)
- Archdeacon/Archdeaconry
- Peculiar Court
- Diocese (aka Court Consistory)
The archdeaconry is a traditional ecclesiastical court, while the peculiar court has nontraditional boundaries outside the archdeacon’s jurisdiction. The Phillimore Atlas (aka Great Britain Atlas & Index) can tell you which court your ancestor’s parish belonged to. The website, FamilySearch Map, can also provide the court name under the “Jurisdictions” tab for the parish. In the image below, the probate court highlighted is for Leighton Buzzard parish, Bedfordshire, on FamilySearch Map.2
Probate Court highlighted for Leighton Buzzard parish, Bedfordshire, on FamilySearch Map
Here are some important factors to consider when searching for your ancestor’s will:
- If your ancestor’s property is in a peculiar court but extends over its boundary, the will was probated in the archdeaconry.
- If your ancestor’s property straddles two archdeaconries, the will was probated in the diocese court.
- If the value of your ancestor’s property exceeded £5 in more than one diocese, the will was probated in the prerogative court.
Once you know which court recorded your ancestor’s will, type its name in the FamilySearch Catalog for a list of all records of that court held by the Family History Library. Alternatively, if your ancestor’s will was probated in an archdeaconry or diocese under the Canterbury Prerogative Court (which covered the southern half of England), it should be indexed and easily searchable in the England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 on Ancestry.
If your ancestor left a will, it can be an invaluable resource for establishing relationships and discovering family members. For example, see the image below for the will of John Smyth in 1656. 3
memorandum
The two and twentieth day of May One thousand six-
hundred fiftie six John Smith of Godalming in the County
of Surrey husbandman made and declared his will nuncupa-
-tive and therein he bequeathed unto his brother Henry Smith six
pence thence he also gave unto his Sister Joane the Wife of John Hotway
the sonne of John Hotway one shilling he also gave unto Phillipp
Hotway one shilling he also gave unto Joane Hotway the younger one shilling
he also gave unto William Hotway one shilling and did then nominate
and appointe Anne his Wife to be the Executrix of this his said
Will These words or words to this effect he then spake and declared
this day and year above alsoe in the presence of Joane Philby, Andrew
Bodham, and John Keene, James Philby, John Keene 4
This nuncupative will was spoken, not written, likely because John Smith was too ill to write a formally witnessed will. Five people were present to informally witness the will which names John’s heirs, who appear to be his brother, sister, and sister’s children.
Will of John Smyth of Godalming, Surrey, in 1656
Death Duties
What about courts or counties that don’t have surviving wills? For example, pre-1858 wills for Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall were destroyed in bombings during WWII. Fortunately, one can find a substitute for lost wills in a collection called death duties. Death duties were taxes on the estates of the deceased when they were probated. The wills associated with the estates were copied into abstracts and saved with the death duty records. Duties were first introduced in 1796 and included different types:
- Legacy Duty (1796)- Covered personal property only.
- Succession Duty (1850s)- Covered land.
- Estate Duty (1896)- Covered everything the deceased owned. Estate Duties typically had notes on multiple generations if the family was wealthy (marriage information, names of spouses, children, etc.).
The most detailed records can be found post-1812, while records prior to that year have less information. The National Archives has a guide on how to look for death duties, and Findmypast has an index to Death Duties covering 1796-1903.
Join us next time for Part 4 of this blog series, where we’ll discuss how to use court records as a resource for your ancestral family.
Blog Posts in this Series:
Sources
- “England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/), accessed June 2024.
- “England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/), accessed June 2024.
- Church of England Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PROB 11: Will Registers, 1655-1659, Piece 257: Berkeley Quire Numbers 261-312 (1656), John Smyth; digital image, “England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/), accessed June 2024.
- Transcription done using Claude 3.5 sonnet with detected errors corrected, (https://claude.ai/chat/ : 29 June 2024).
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