England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Index of Will Registers, 1384-1858

979,653 records

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Will proved

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Wills & Probates

England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Index of Will Registers, 1384-1858

England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Index of Will Registers, 1384-1858

979,653 records

This collection includes the majority of registered wills proved before the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and other jurisdictions that exercised probate jurisdiction in the place of the Court, the most important of which was the Court for Probate of Wills and Granting of Administrations which exercised sole probate jurisdiction in England and Wales from 1653 to 1659. The records contain the following searchable information: name of the person for whom the will was created (including a title if given), the location where the person lived, and the date of the will. The content in this collection originates from <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/" target="blank">The National Archives</a> and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Until January 1858, all wills had to be proved by the church and other courts. The Prerogative Court of Canterbury was the most important of these courts dealing with relatively wealthy individuals living mainly in the south of England and most of Wales.The earliest registers in this collection were constituted at a later date and contain the texts of wills proved before the archbishop of Canterbury or his officials before the Prerogative Court of Canterbury came into existence. Sentences in causes heard by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and related jurisdictions, if registered, were also registered in this collection until some time in the latter part of the eighteenth century. English is the predominant language for these documents. The usage of Latin (and to a lesser extent Norman-French) quickly declined after the early wills. By the sixteenth century Latin was no longer being used.

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