"all persons male or female, old or young, lay or spiritual, at any time before their death, whilst they are able to speak so distinctly, or write so plainly that another may understand them, and perceive that they understand themselves, may make wills of their lands, goods and chattels"
Jacob’s Law Dictionary
Anyone with any possessions could make a will to say who was to inherit their property after their death. A will was a document which devised land, [real estate], and a testament bequeathed money or goods, [personal estate]. In practice, the terms will and testament came to be used to mean the same thing. Unmarried girls as young as 12 were thought capable of making a will, and boys at any age between 14 and 17, depending on their discretion. Married women could bequeath goods and chattels with the consent of their husband, who had to be the executor of the will. The goods and chattels were those the wife had brought to the marriage, plus her "paraphernalia" which was a legal term meaning her necessary wearing apparel with which her husband had provided her.
A will could be written down and signed by the testator [the person making the will] and two or more witnesses, or it could be verbal. Verbal wills are known as "nuncupative". After the will was made, the testator could add to it at a later date with a codicil if he changed his mind about a bequest, or if family circumstances changed.
Wills are useful for family history research because of the information they give about family members. They can name the spouses of sons and daughters, or give the names of grandchildren, and they are very good at clarifying relationships in the family, particularly when several people in the family have been given the same Christian name.
Sometimes a testator left the tools of his trade to one of his sons, or items of furniture or clothing to his children or grandchildren. It was common, however, for family property not to be mentioned at all, because the house or farm had already been settled on the eldest son by the parents’ marriage settlement. An indication of this is the bequest of nothing but a small sum of money, such as a shilling, to the son. A married daughter may have also received a small token sum if her portion of the estate had already been given to her at the time of her marriage. If a child was really "cut off with a shilling", the testator would usually give the reason.
After the testator’s death, the will had to be proved by the executor for it to be valid. Before 1858, this was done at an ecclesiastical court, although some manorial courts had the right to prove wills. Wills were commonly proved in the consistory court of the archdeaconry in which the deceased had property. There are exceptions to this. In Devon the archdeacons’ courts did not act while the bishop was visiting the area, so wills would go to the bishop’s court.
There are also parishes known as "peculiars" which belonged to the bishop, or the dean and chapter, or the vicars choral, and wills made by Devon people from these parishes would be proved in the appropriate court in Exeter. Uffculme was a peculiar of the bishop of Salisbury, so all the wills are now at Wiltshire Record Office. If the deceased held property in more than one archdeaconry, then the will was proved in the bishop’s court. If he held property in more than one diocese, the will was proved in the archbishop’s [prerogative] court, either Canterbury or York, and if the property lay in both archbishoprics, then Canterbury took precedence. Wills proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury are commonly referred to as P.C.C. wills.
The executor would take the will to the court, where it would be copied on parchment and a note that probate had been granted was attached to the copy. The original remained in the court and the executor took the copy. If a deceased person died intestate (without making a will) the next-of-kin could apply to the court for letters of administration. This is often referred to as an "admon". Until 1782, the executor of a written or verbal will was also obliged to submit an inventory of the testator’s goods to the court.
There were other, non-ecclesiastical, courts in Devon which could prove wills. The Cary family, and later the Mallocks, who were lords of the manor of Cockington, had the right to prove the wills of deceased tenants, grant administrations and take inventories at the manor court. For this privilege they paid 13/4d annually to the Archdeacon of Totnes. The city of Exeter also recorded wills and inventories. In medieval times the Mayor’s Court had the power to prove wills, which were enrolled on the rolls of court proceedings. Later, in 1560, Exeter obtained a charter to have a court to manage the estates of the orphans of the city. The court paid the orphans an annual allowance for their maintenance and lent out their money at interest, or the Chamber borrowed it to finance projects of its own. The money was refunded to the orphans when they reached the age of 21.
Devon wills were stored at the courts where they were proved until 1858, when a new system of probate registration was introduced. The power to prove wills was taken from the church courts and a Principal Probate Registry together with District Probate Registries were set up. From this time on, Devon wills were proved in the Exeter Probate Registry. A registered copy of each will and letter of administration was retained in Exeter, and a copy sent to the Principal Registry. Thus copies of all wills and administrations for England and Wales from 1858 are also kept in London at the Principal Probate Registry. Until a few years ago, copies of the wills and administrations were kept, together with the original National Probate Calendar (i.e. index of wills and administrations) at the Principal Probate Registry in Somerset House, London. The Probate Registry is now located at First Avenue House, High Holborn in London, and copies can be obtained there in person, or by post from the Probate Registry at York.
At the end of each year since 1858, the Principal Probate Registry has compiled an index, arranged alphabetically, for all the wills and letters of administration received by them in that year. Copies of the index were - and still are - also distributed to the District Registries, where they are available for inspection.
For more information on searching the National Probate Calendar and ordering post-1857 wills, go to locating Devon wills and administrations .
Wills which had been proved in the archdeaconry courts in Totnes and Barnstaple before 1858 were eventually moved from there to the Probate Office in Exeter, as were the wills from the different Exeter courts which had been stored in various places in the Cathedral. In 1908 Edward Fry wrote
" it was a red-letter day……….when these documents were transferred to their present resting place in Exeter".
Unfortunately, in 1942 the Probate Registry was destroyed in the bombing and all the wills were burnt. This means that all the original wills no longer exist - a great loss for those researching Devon families. However, copies of some wills do survive - read on for information on locating Devon wills.
Sources available in Exeter
Wills proved and administrations granted in Devon after 1942 are all held at the Exeter Probate Sub Registry at 2nd Floor, Crown & County Courts, Southernhay Gardens, Exeter, EX1 1UH (tel: +44 (0) 1392 415370
The Exeter Probate Registry also has the index to all the wills and administrations - the National Probate Calendar - for England and Wales from 1858 until last year. Devon Record Office also has the same index on microfiche for dates covering 1858 to 1935.
You may search this index at either place for reference to a will proved anywhere in the country, or we can search it for you through our fee-paying Research Service.
The National Probate Calendar is a detailed index, which gives the value of the estate and the Registry at which the probate was granted; it also includes the names, addresses and occupations of the deceased and his/her executor and their relationship.
If you live in England, but cannot visit Exeter, and are searching for a will proved in Devon after 1857, you should be able to find a copy of the National Probate Calendar at your nearest District Probate Registry. Note however, that many District Registries outside of Devon have in fact transferred their earlier indexes to a local record office. Your nearest record office may therefore have these, or else a microfiche copy. To find out about your local District Probate Registry visit the Court Service website. The Society of Genealogists Library in London also holds a copy of the National Probate Calendar, 1858-1930.
Remember that the Exeter Probate Registry does not hold copies of any wills proved in Devon before 1942, nor of any proved outside Devon. Therefore if you find reference to a pre-1942 Devon will in the National Probate Calendars, you will still have to order it in one of the following ways:
Each will or administration costs £5 sterling per copy, irrespective of the number of pages. Please make out any cheque to HM Paymaster General.
Devon Record Office has a small selection of copy wills covering all dates which have been deposited among solicitors' or family and estate collections, and in the old Exeter City Archives collection. We also hold Miss Olive Moger’s collection of typed abstracts of Devon wills, together with microfiche copies of Devon Estate Duty Office wills 1812-1857, originally held by the Inland Revenue Department in London.
Both the Record Office and the Westcountry Studies Library next door have copies of Edward Fry’s published calendar of wills proved in the Bishop's courts in Exeter. It is also available at other libraries outside the county. The Westcountry Studies Library holds Sir Oswyn Murray’s series of abstracts of wills, a duplicate set of Miss Moger's collection of abstracts, and a surname index to wills proved in Barnstaple before 1858. There is no index to wills proved in the court at Totnes before 1858.
For more useful details on searching for Devon wills in all of the sources mentioned above, click below:
More on Locating Devon Wills and Administrations
Sources available in London
The National Archives has the probate records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury [PCC wills ] which cover mainly the southern half of the country. There are printed calendars available, but these are not yet available on the Internet. Copies of PCC wills and the calendars are also held at the Family Records Centre. They also include all wills proved in the country between 1652 and 1660 when church courts were abolished and wills had to be proved in London. In the 19th century, the P.C.C. was the only court recognised by the Bank of England, and so wills of testators who held money in public funds were proved there.
Digital images of wills from 1850 to 1858 are available from The National Archive Online at the website www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wills.asp - you can download the wills for a charge of £3 per will.
The records of the Prerogative Court of York are held at the Borthwick Institute of the University of York.
The National Archives also hold Death Duty Registers dating from 1796. These record details of wills and administrations where death duties or estate duty was due. They are useful for finding out about some missing Devon wills dated between 1796 and 1811, as well as administrations between 1812 and 1857 which do not appear in the Inland Revenue Wills Series. For more details on Death Duty Registers, click below:
"Calendars of Devonshire Wills", E.A. Fry (Editor), Devonshire Association, 1908 and 1914
"Devonshire Wills, a Collection of Annotated Testamentary Abstracts", Charles Worthy, 1896
"Wills and their Whereabouts", A. Camp, 1974
"Wills and Where to Find Them", Jeremy S.W. Gibson, Phillimore, 1974
"A Simplified Guide to Probate Jurisdictions", Jeremy S.W. Gibson, Gibson’s Guides, Federation of Family History Societies, 1980
The National Archives publish several leaflets on wills, probate records and death duty registers which you can obtain from The National Archives by post, or find on its web site .
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