Detailed notes
The vast bulk of the original Devon wills and administrations (where a person had died without a will, but an application was made by next of kin to 'administer' their estate) were destroyed during the second World War, when Exeter Probate Registry was bombed by the Germans during the blitz of 1942. Therefore, Exeter Probate Registry now only holds original wills and administrations dating after this.
However, before the second World War, some of the earlier wills and administrations kept in the Probate Registry had been calendared (listed) and a proportion of these had also been abstracted, so that some record of the destroyed wills still survives.
E.A. Fry's calendar of Devonshire Wills and Administrations, published by the Devonshire Association (1908-1914) lists some of the wills and administrations destroyed in the Probate Registry. Until 1858, all wills were proved in various church courts, and thus there were many places in each County which a will could be proved. Included in E.A Fry's calendar are those wills proved in the Courts of the Principal Registry of the Bishop of Exeter and the Archdeaconry of Exeter.
This published calendar can be found on the shelves of the Devon Record Office and the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter, as well as at the Family Record Centre and the Society of Genealogists Library, both in London; other family history centre libraries; and major libraries in cities and universities in England and around the world [e.g. the New South Wales Public Library in Sydney has a copy].
Through our Devon Record Office postal/email enquiry service, we can search our copy of Fry's calendar to see if a will or administration was ever proved in Exeter for a particular individual. However, the calendar simply lists the wills proved and administrations granted, giving the year, name and place of residence of the testators, and thus gives no details at all of the actual content of individual wills. However it may help to know that a will once existed and was proved.
For some of the other Devon courts, there is no list at all of what wills once existed. There is a list of the wills proved in the Court of the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple, which is on the shelf in the Westcountry Studies Library. Unfortunately, no such list was made of the wills proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Totnes - and this Court covered a large part of south and west Devon, including Plymouth and the South Hams parishes. The original wills proved at both of these Courts had been sent to Exeter Probate Registry and were therefore destroyed in 1942.
Before the 19th century, as already mentioned, there is only a small chance that an individual will has survived in Devon. What survives for dates up to 1812 is a very small proportion of that which once existed. However, some copies of wills and administrations have been deposited at Devon Record Office, usually as part of family, estate or solicitors' collections. These wills can date from the 15th through to the 20th century. Sometimes wills deposited in solicitors' collections are only in draft form, and these may be early versions of a will which was later altered before being proved. However sometimes a draft will is the only record of a Devon will which now survives.
There is a card index in the office to wills and administrations found in catalogued collections. This index lists only the name and date and sometimes the parish of residence of the person for whom the will exists. It also indexes wills found in the Exeter City Archives collection held at this office - including Mayor's Court and Orphan' Court wills. This card index can be searched for one or two surnames through our postal/email enquiry service. Any longer searches are referred to our fee-paying Research Service.
Photocopies of wills can be provided where the document itself is suitable for copying.
Devon Record Office has a series of volumes containing abstracts of selected wills and administrations, compiled by Miss Olive Moger before the second World War. Miss Moger abstracted wills and administrations for those families which interested her, or which she was researching for others, so her series is not complete. We can search Miss Moger's volumes for a relevant surname through our postal/email enquiry service, and provide photocopies of the pages.
Another larger series of abstracts was prepared before the second World War by Sir Oswyn-Murray and these volumes are kept in the Westcountry Studies Library next door. This is not one of our own Record Office resources, but our fee-paying Research Service can search these volumes for you.
Devon Record Office also has an index to Series I and Series II of Miss Moger's summaries of testamentary causes or disputes (these were disputes over the proving of wills, which were presented to the Church Court, and survive among the diocesan records). We can search this index through our postal/email enquiry service, and provide photocopies of Miss Moger's handwritten summaries of these dispute papers. We hold the original papers referred to in the abstracts, in un-numbered bundles, and our fee-paying Research Service can search through these and provide photocopies where the original papers are suitable for copying.
This is a collection of copies of Devon wills (dated 1812-1857) which were held in London for estate duty ('death duty') purposes, and which survived through the second World War. From 1796 legacy, succession and estate duty ('death duties') were payable on many estates in England and Wales over a certain value. However, surviving copies of the wills which were subject to this duty date from 1812 to 1857. This is because it was only from 1812 that copy wills were made - before this, the Death Duty Registers include very brief abstracts of wills. Although the copy wills from 1812 to 1857 have largely been destroyed, those for Cornwall, Devon and Somerset (from the major local probate courts) were sent to the respective record offices, to fill some of the gap caused by the loss of locally held wills from those counties by enemy action. The collection in Devon Record Office is known as the Inland Revenue Wills Series or the Estate Duty Office Wills.
The wills are available on microfiche at Devon Record Office in Exeter, but they are also available on microfilm by ordering through Mormon Family History Research Centres in Britain, Canada, Australia, U.S.A. and other overseas countries. To find the address of your nearest Mormon Family History Research Centre, see the website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Note that administration papers are not included in this wills series, and it is likely that wills for estates of little value are also missing. The value of estates subject to this duty changed over time. The proportion of deceased people who had to pay estate duty increased throughout the nineteenth century as legislation changed. The Death Duty Registers held at The National Archives illustrate this.
For more information on estate duty wills, see the information leaflet titled Death Duty Records, From 1796, on the The National Archives website.
The index to the Inland Revenue [Estate Duty Office] Wills Series is now available on-line through the Access to Archives [A2A] website. You can search this index on-line for any surname of interest, and order photocopies of any wills found from Devon Record Office by email or post. This is now the quickest way to obtain copies of wills in this collection. We can alternatively search our own paper index to these wills for a small number of surnames through our enquiry service, and supply photocopies of any wills found.
The value of estates subject to estate duty or death duties changed as time went on. As already explained, the scope of estate duty was extended throughout the nineteenth century, so that gradually more of those people who left assets after death were subject to this duty. Between 1796 and 1805 the Death Duty Registers, which record the details of all estates subject to duty, cover about a quarter of all estates; by 1857, the Registers should include entries for all estates except those worth less than £20. Unlike the Estate Duty Wills Series, the Death Duty Registers also record estates of persons who died without leaving any will, and for which letters of administration were granted. The information in the Register in these cases is not very detailed. In addition, unless the assets were valued at £1,500 or more, the taxes were often not collected, and so the Death Duty Register entry was not filled in with all the details. Death duties were not required of people who died in the service of their country.
The indexes to these registers are available on microfilm at the The National Archives and the Family Record Centre. Some of the main series of registers for 1796-1857 can also be seen on microfilm at both places. However, the registers from 1858-1903 are stored off site. They are available at The National Archives, but only on 3 working days' notice. Many of the registers for the 1890s were destroyed by fire.
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