Jill Morris continues her exploration of wills from the 14th to 19th centuries, available online
Jill Morris
is a regular writer for Discover Your Ancestors Periodical.
In the previous issue of the Periodical, we focused on wills proved at the Prerogative Courts of Canterbury and York, but there are many, many more wills – including some Irish, Scottish and American collections – to be explored among the online resources at The Genealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk). Among the indexes, mostly compiled from the British Record Society’s 19th century volumes, are many English wills up to 1858 that were not proven in either of the Prerogative Courts (usually reserved for those who owned a great deal of property and land over a large area, and those who died overseas) but in one of the 250 smaller courts around the country.
Some of the earliest wills are found in the Lancashire collections (which include parts of Cheshire, so it is worth checking for ancestors in surrounding counties) and go back as far as 1301. Much of the Latin of these early wills is fairly clear even to the uninitiated, but The National Archives’ tutorials will provide assistance: go to nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/reading-old-document. Pictured here is the earliest will in the Lancashire collections – that of Thomas de Macclesfield, an officer under King Edward I. It dates back to the early 14th century
At present, The Genealogist’s will collections do not include Welsh documents, which are held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, and only some Edinburgh wills are available for Scotland; but there are extensive collections available for England.
Wills are located at the site under ‘Wills, Probates and Testaments’, or are available to search using the Master Search, and are organised by county and sometimes in date-grouped subsets. A standard search allows you to enter a first name, surname and year of probate (when the will was proven), but searches can be further narrowed by providing the year of the will maker’s death, and his or her profession and location. Some of the earliest wills are in Latin, but because they are taken from printed transcripts rather than handwritten documents they are a little easier to read than would otherwise be the case! There are also helpful notes relating to the Latin text, provided by the volumes’ editors.
Although it is certainly true that many people with little to leave behind did not make a will, don’t assume that this is the case. Many of the wills in these collections were made by farmers, labourers, traders, shopkeepers and so on. If your ancestor is to be found here, his or her bequests can reveal valuable genealogical information such as details of family members, places of residence and burial, and details about possessions. Reading between the lines of wills can often reveal who was favoured and who was not as well as insights into people’s religious beliefs, personal likes and interests. Bear in mind that some volumes also list administrations for those who did not leave a will.
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