Using wills and probate inventories in building history

In general it was the more affluent citizen who left a will in past centuries. Such a person could leave a charitable bequest for building work on a church or almshouse, or specify burial or funeral arrangements in ways that reveal architectural detail or layout. See medieval sources for chantries.

Part of an inventory of a yeoman of Good Easter, Essex 1618 (Essex Record Office). Click to enlarge in new windowMore revealing of domestic layout are the probate inventories. Legally from 1529 to 1782 in England and Wales an inventory of the deceased's goods was required from his executor before probate was granted. Assessors often listed the person's possessions room by room. Where they survive, inventories should be housed with the related wills. An inventory could still be made after 1782 if desired, but they peter out after this time and are not found with wills after 1858, when the system of probate changed. Some inventories survive in family papers. Most inventories must be read in manuscript, but some are in print (see list below). A glossary may be helpful.

How to find a will or inventory

The Church was responsible for proving wills until the Reformation in Scotland and until 1858 in England, Ireland and Wales. In general if the deceased had property only in one place, the will could be proved in the local archdeacon's court. If he or she had property in more than one place within a diocese, the will would be proved in the diocesan court. If the deceased had property in more than one diocese, the will would be proved in the prerogative court of Armagh, Canterbury, or York, as appropriate. If the deceased's property fell in more than one province, then the will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Your Archives has a helpful list of online probate indexes. The national ones are also noted below.

England

Those wills proved in the archdeacon's court or the diocesan court are now generally to be found in the relevant county record office. Wills of the Diocese of Exeter were destroyed in the Blitz, but were calendared in typescript before WW2; these calendars are in the Westcountry Studies Library. PCY wills are now in the Borthwick Institute. PCC wills are in the National Archives; all of them (more than a million covering the period 1384 to 1858) can be searched online at Documents Online; there is a small fee to download an image of the will itself. The British Record Society has published indexes to those wills in the National Archives and a number of other locations - see Mullins. Also a number of wills have been published in transcript by record societies. The volumes for Lincoln and London are online at British History Online.

Ireland

Few Irish wills survive from before 1780. Abstracts of the records of the Prerogative Court of Armagh are in the National Archives of Ireland. Most of the originals were destroyed by fire in 1922. See Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536-1810 ed. Sir Arthur Vicars (Dublin 1897).

Wales

All wills proved in Welsh diocesan courts before 1858 are in the National Library of Wales. These have been digitised and the images are online. Note that the wills of people with property in more than one diocese would have been been proved in the PCC.

Scotland

In Scotland very few wills survive from the period of Church jurisdiction. After the Reformation of 1560 commissary courts took over the duties of the former church courts until 1823, when they were succeeded by sheriff's courts. Records are kept at the National Archives of Scotland. Scottish wills 1500-1925 are online at Scotland's People. Records up to 1800 have been indexed by the Scottish Record Society.

Guides to probate records

Probate inventories: transcripts and indexes

England: Mixed counties

England by historic counties:

Bedfordshire

Berkshire

Bristol

Buckinghamshire

Cheshire

Derbyshire

Devon

Dorset

Durham

Essex

Gloucestershire

Hampshire

Herefordshire

Hertfordshire

Kent

Lancashire

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

London

Oxfordshire

Nottinghamshire

Shropshire

Somerset

Staffordshire

Suffolk

Surrey

Sussex

Warwickshire

Wiltshire

Worcestershire

Yorkshire

Ireland: Cork

Scotland: Argyll