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Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills (1384 - 1858)IntroductionYou can search and download Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills made between 1384 and 12 January 1858. Until 12 January 1858 all wills had to be proved by the church and other courts. The PCC was the most important of these courts dealing with relatively wealthy individuals living mainly in the south of England and most of Wales. These PCC wills are all registered copy wills, meaning they are copies of original probates written into volumes, by clerks at the church courts. Over the years, styles of handwriting changed, and you will find that many of the earlier wills are written in Latin. You can search the wills using first and last names, place, occupation and date of probate. For more general help on searching, please see the search tips. What do the wills look like?Wills are on average a page long, although they can range from a mere five lines to more than twenty pages. Your will might not be at the start of the image you ordered; the PCC clerk did not usually begin a new will on a new page but began copying it immediately after the preceding will. You should also bear in mind the following:
You can download the wills below free of charge to see the typical styles of writing used over the years. The wills of Susanna Smith and Jane Austen have been annotated to show the different parts of a will: What language are these wills written in?The majority of the wills are written in English. Wills written in French, Dutch or other European languages have an authenticated translation in the PCC registered copies. But this time only the probate clause on occasions was still written in Latin. Before 1733, texts, sentences and probates clauses were written in Latin (with the exception of those from the Interregnum, which are in English). If you want to learn how to read old handwriting, you can try our online palaeography tutorial. You can also try our beginners' or advanced Latin tutorials. The National Archives is unable to provide a transcription or translation service, however our website contains a list of independent researchers who can help. Where would a will be proved?In the period leading up to 1858 the country was divided into two provinces - York and Canterbury. These provinces were split into a number of dioceses (each with at least two bishops), which were in turn divided into several archdeaconries, which were then split into rural deaneries. The Prerogative Courts of Canterbury covered the south of England and Wales. The Prerogative Courts of York covered York, Durham, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire and the Isle of Man. There were three main factors determining in which court a will would be proved:
Further researchDocumentsOnline holds a collection of original wills of famous people. DocumentsOnline also holds Royal Naval seamen's wills. You may find our glossary useful. Use the National Archives online currency converter to get an idea of what the amounts might be worth in today's money. Our range of online tutorials on Latin and palaeography will help you to read documents from the medieval period and beyond. If you have a transcribed will to share with others, see Your Archives, The National Archives' online community of records users. There is information on the Court Service website about wills after 1858 and how to obtain copies of probate records. For the period between 1312 and 1384, medieval wills proved before the Archbishop can be found enrolled on registers held not at the National Archives but at Lambeth Palace Library, though the numbers of wills is comparatively small. For the period between 1384 and about 1500, while most PCC wills can be found on DocumentsOnline, a few wills were only entered on the Archbishop’s registers at Lambeth. To check, please see Index of Wills Recorded in the Archiepiscopal Registers at Lambeth Palace, edited by J.C. Smith or contact Lambeth. Research GuidesBooksWills and Probate Records, Karen Grannum and Nigel Taylor (The National Archives 2009). When Death Do Us Part: Understanding and interpreting the probate records of early modern England, Evans, Arkell and Goose (Local Population Studies, 2000). Words from Wills and other Probate Records, Stuart A Raymond. This book provides definitions for archaic words commonly found in early modern probate records. Tracing Your Ancestors in The National Archives, Amanda Bevan (The National Archives 2006). Latin for Local and Family Historians, A Beginner's Guide, Denis Stuart, (Phillimore, 2006). |
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