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Wills can be very useful in genealogy as they can give you information about a person's family, friends, estate(s) and addresses. Not everyone made a will however and not every will made was actually taken to be proved by a court after the will-maker died. To a large extent it was mainly the richer people in society who made wills.

The area of wills in research can be quite confusing. Since wills are legal documents, the terms used with reference to them are legal terms:

• Will - a document written by a person prior to their death to explain how their land and belongings should be disposed of when they die.
• Administration - an approach to a court for the right to divide up land and belongings when a person died without leaving a will, 'intestate'.
• Probate - probate is granted when a court rules that a will or administration is legally valid. This takes place after the person has died and allows an estate to be divided up.

Before 1858 it can be difficult to find a will or administration (if you know one was granted) unless you know the general area where a person lived, which court may have granted the will/administration and you are a bit knowledgeable about local record offices (which one holds what and for what area). Prior to 1858 the Church held the jurisdiction over the granting of probate. After 1858 it is easy to find wills & administrations as they are all indexed in one, big, yearly national index which is in alphabetical order.

Up to 1858: The smallest courts in which a will or administration might be proved was the Archdeacon's Court, used where a person's landholdings lay within that ecclesiastical archdeaconry. If a person's landholdings fell into more than one archdeaconry, but within the same ecclesiastical diocese, their will or administration would be proven in that diocese's Bishop's Court. If a person's landholdings fell into more than one diocese, their will or administration would be proved in one of two places depending on where the land was: Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury for southern holdings, Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of York for northern holdings. Estates proven in the Archbishops' courts were estates whose value totalled at least £5 (£10 in London). If a person had land in both the south and the north, the will/administration would be proved in both the York and Canterbury courts.

There are indexes to the wills and administrations in the two Archbishop courts: that of Canterbury can be found in the Public Record Office in Kew and the Family Records Centre in Islington, and that of York in the Borthwick Institute, York. Records of wills and administrations of the regional Diocesan and local Archdeacon's courts may be found in the record office for that particular area of the country.

1858 Onwards: All wills and administrations were proved under the same court from 1858. The Church ceased to have juristiction over granting probate - it became a governmental task under the national Court of Probate (wills and administrations being proven at the local Probate Registry). As such, all wills and administrations were indexed nationally in one index, making the search for individuals a much easier task for researchers. Paper or microfilm/fiche copies of this 'Probate Calendar' as it is called may be found in many libraries, record offices and at the Public Record Office, Family Records Centre and First Avenue House (the Principal Registry) in London.

To summarise:

* records of administrations in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury start from 1559, wills from 1383.

Important Notes:

• Until 1733 wills were written in Latin.
• the date of a grant may be much later than the date of death.

When an entry for a person is found within an index a full copy of the will or administration can be viewed and/or ordered:

• Those proved in Archdeacons' and Bishops' courts may be viewed and/or ordered at the local or county record office which serves that particular area.
• Those proved in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury can be viewed and/or reproduced at the Public Record Office in Kew and the Family Records Centre in Islington.
• Those proved in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of York can be viewed or ordered at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research in York.
• Those after 1858 in the Principal Probate Registry can be ordered from First Avenue House in London.

Please note: As with ordering birth/ marriage/ death certificates, it is best practice to check the details of the transcription on Jacomb.com with the original index at a library or record office. Whilst the details in the indexes transcribed here on Jacomb.com are believed to be highly accurate, they cannot be guaranteed 100% so.

Wills & Administrations: (as of 16/12/2006)

Jacomb entries in the Indexes of Wills & Administrations in the:

• 1383 - 1857 Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1858 - 1960 Principal Probate Registry