WHERE THERE’S A WILL
Where there’s a will, there’s a way to find out more about your ancestors. A will often contains unique information, and Simon Wills looks at how to locate these precious sources of family history
Dr Simon Wills provides a mini summary of resources to help you make use of these most useful of family history records
It’s important to realise two things when hunting for a will. Firstly, your overall chance of finding a will for most ancestors is small. The majority of our forebears did not make a will, and some wills that were written have not survived. Secondly, the process of locating a will can be complex as there are many potential sources and a range of factors influence where to look. This article is merely a brief introduction.
Probate explained
In England and Wales, the word probate is often used to describe the legal procedures by which the assets of a deceased ancestor were dealt with. The person may have left a will describing how he or she would like their property, money and possessions distributed, and naming an executor who would oversee this process. If there was no will, then a legal document known as a letter of administration was sometimes required to appoint an executor who had to obey certain rules in disposing of the estate. The administration was accompanied by an inventory which listed and valued the deceased’s possessions.
All three documents – wills, administrations and inventories – can reveal new details about your ancestor’s life and relationships. There may be a date of death, an occupation and place of abode, a detailed description of possessions, and an estimate of the person’s wealth. Most useful of all are the names of beneficiaries and usually their relationship to the deceased, sometimes accompanied by unfavourable comments about persons who inherit nothing.
Until January 1858, most wills had to be proved in an ecclesiastical court and there was a hierarchy of them. The Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) covered the south of England and Wales, and the Prerogative Court of York (PCY) the north of England. These two provinces were split into dioceses administered by a bishop, and each diocese into archdeaconries. Crudely, a poor person’s will is likely to have been dealt with by an archdeacon’s court, while a person with possessions in more than one archdeaconry was dealt with by a Bishop’s diocesan court. The prerogative courts generally
dealt with the wealthier middle and upper classes, but also British people abroad (including many seafarers and emigrants).
The system in Scotland was different to England and Wales. The Scotlandspeople website has a helpful summary of the procedures, documents, and terminology that you are likely to encounter: https:// familytr.ee/people. This site also links to digital copies of Scottish wills and related documents from 1513 onwards that can be downloaded for a fee.
The Royal Navy particularly encouraged its personnel to make a will to help prevent fraud following
Most diocesan and archdeaconry wills are to be found in archives local to the area, and many have compiled indexes to them. Some of these indexes are available on the archive’s own website, have been published as books, or are included on subscription sites such as Thegenealogist, Ancestry and Findmypast. The National Library of Wales has its own online database of ecclesiastical wills: https://familytr.ee/waleswills a man’s death in service. TNA has digitised around 20,000 of these dating from 1786 onwards that can be searched by name: https:// familytr.ee/navy. Finally, a will might be contested for all sorts of reasons, usually related to either its validity as a legal document or the terms of the will. The National Archives (TNA) has several helpful online Research Guides to wills for England and Wales, but the pre-1858 Further Research Guide is very helpful for disputed wills: https://familytr.ee/willsguide.
Disputed wills were also newsworthy and might feature in local or national newspapers.
About the author
Dr Simon Wills is a genealogist and author with more than 30 years’ experience of researching his ancestors. He has a particular interest in maritime history and the natural world. His latest book is A History of Birds (White Owl). He is also author of The Wreck of the SS London, Tracing Your Seafaring Ancestors, and How Our Ancestors Died amongst others.