Project Purley

The Local History Society for Purley on Thames

Probate Records

Introduction

This section refers to documents made at or about the time of a person's death. They include Wills, Testaments, Post-Mortem Inquisitions and Inventories They tend to provide information about two aspects of a person, their economic status and their relationships. This information often tells us a lot about the community and times in which they lived and can tell us of the person's religious beliefs.

Click Here For a list of probate records relevant to Purley

Historical Background

In feudal times land was not a commodity which could be transferred easily from one person to another but money and personal goods were. Thus on a person's death his real property reverted to the King and he was free to dispose of his other earthly possessions as he saw fit.

However before disposing of his assets a person would want to ensure that his soul was well catered for. This meant making sure that there was a written record of his faith, commending his soul to God and making sure that he was prayed for after his death. This was all recorded in a document which was known as the person's Testament and to it was added the disposition of his other assets, except land.

Inheritance of land was by Fine. What usually happened was that when a wealthy landowner died there was an Inquisition Post Mortem which identified and listed all his lands and feudal obligations. Then, whoever claimed to be his heir, would take this document to the King's court, swear fealty to the King and pay a Fine which entitled the heir to assume the rights, privileges and obligations so listed. However in many cases the King did not permit the heir to succeed and disposed of the lands in other ways.

A widow tended to be provided for by reservation of a third of the estate for her enjoyment during her lifetime, and then for the estate to revert to the king. If the heir was under age the king would usually appoint an administrator to look after the estate until the rightful heir could come to court and pay the necessary fines. But this was usually a licence to rob the them blind.

During the later Middle Ages many ingenious dodges were devised to get around this rather chancy business. Usually these involved setting up Trusts and tying up the rights and obligations in Legal Agreements between Trusts and Beneficiaries. This process was known as Entailment and when a person died he needed to transfer his role within the entailment so that his will could be exercised by another. The definition of his intentions in this regard was therefore documented as his 'Will' which was quite separate from his 'Testament.'

After death it was necessary for the heirs and successors to prove their rights which had been transferred by the Will. This meant going to the most appropriate church court to prove the will and seek probate. There were three levels of such courts, the lowest level was the Archdeacon's Court, then the Bishop's Court and finally the Provincial Court.

If all the lands referred to were in the same Archdeaconary (eg Berkshire) then it was possible to have the matter dealt with in the Archdeacon's Court. If however there were lands in several archdeaconaries, but within the same Diocese, then the Bishop's Court could handle it. In Purley's case this was the Bishop of Sarum until 1836 and the Bishop of Oxford from then.

If on the other hand the person had held lands in several dioceses then only the Prerogative Court of the Province of Canterbury could deal with the matter. The result was that the majority of the lesser landholders were dealt with in the Archdeacon's Court and most of the major landowners dealt with Canterbury with only a small number needing to use the Bishop's Consistory Court.

The Will (including the Testament) was generally drawn up by a professional scribe shortly before the person's death. The scribes tended to use standard forms which were prevalent for the area and the time and to fill in the specific details as required. Unmarried girls over 12 and boys over 14 were able to make wills but, until 1882, married women were unable to make a will except with the express permission of their husband or where it had been specifically provided for in their marriage contract.

By around the time of the Reformation, Wills and Testaments were becoming merged into one single document and had switched from Latin to English. However the Act of Probate which was attached to the document when proved continued in Latin until 1733.

During the Civil War and Commonwealth period the church courts were closed and where wills needed to be proved this was done centrally. Thus for the period 1653 to 1660 the records are kept with those from the Pre-rogative Court of Canterbury and from 1645 to 1653 could be anywhere, but are likely to have been lost.

The participation of the Church Courts was ended by the Probate Act of 1858 which transferred the process to the State.

Sources

It would seem that somewhere around 10% of the population made a Will and/or Testament and copies of these are preserved. In the case of the Archdeaconary Court they may be found in the Berkshire Record Office, for the Consistory Court at the Wiltshire Record Office and for the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at the National Archives at Kew. In most cases there are fairly good indexes although they tend to be by name and not by place. However researchers have identified lists of wills etc by County and Parish and so they are not too difficult to find.

What tends to be preserved at these Record Offices is the Register Copy which was made at the time Probate was granted. This is a transcription of the will and Probate Act which is written into a Register.

Often however the family will preserve the Probate copy. This consists of a copy of the original will as drawn up by the scribe to which is attached the orginal Probate Act. This provided the Executor with the Authority he required in order to carry out the terms of the will.

The Original will as signed and witnessed would be filed by the Court and the details of the Probate Act would be copied into the Register of Acts.

Most of the Registers have been microfilmed and Record Offices can supply a print from this microfilm. While original copies may have survived they are rarely available.

Related Documents

Where a person had not left a will but nevertheless had property to dispose of it was often required that relatives obtain 'Letters of Administration' This is usually a fairly simple document which gives only the details of the deceased's name and occupation and his relationship to the Administrator. There was an order of priority, ie:-

Husband/wife
Children (in order of sex and age)
Father/mother
Brother/sister
Next of kin
Creditor.

Sometimes Letters were needed when an Executor refused to perform his duties and in this case the will would be annexed.

In some cases the court required an Inventory to be drawn up to list all the personal effects of the deceased. This was usually done by a village jury of neighbours who would go from room to room listing what they found. These provide an extra interest as not only is all the property listed but there is a description of the layout of the house. The Inquisitions Post Mortem from 1240 to 1660 have been published as part of the English Rolls Series.

Bibliography

Project Purley Meeting - talk by Katherine Davies 19/4/91
Wills Inventories and Death Duties (J Cox PRO)
Wills and their Whereabouts (A J Camp)
Contrasting Communities (English Villages in the 16th and 17th centuries (M Spufford)
English Society 1580-1680 (K Wrightson)
The English Family 1450-1700 (R A Houlbrooke)
Church Courts, Sex and Marriage in England 1570-1640 (M Ingram)

H6220 - 10/7/2017

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