Lichfield Consistory Court Wills, 1650-1700

The original wills are held at Lichfield Record Office.

To obtain a copy of the original will or administration, download a copyright/order form from Lichfield Record Office. Complete this and post with the remittance for the cost of the will etc. to Lichfield Record Office. A copy of Lichfield Record Office’s Fees and Charges is also available online. Currently there is a standard charge irrespective of the number of pages.

Each record includes a transcript of the original court record. The amount of information in each transcript can differ, but most will include a combination of the follow:

• Name of testator

• Occupation

• Entry date

• Testator’s place and county of residence

• Court

• Document type

• Additional notes

This record set is an index to wills and other testamentary documents recorded in the Lichfield Consistory Court 1650-1700. The index includes the name of the testator plus occupation, place of residence and type of document.

Prior to 1858, probate was handled by the ecclesiastical or church courts with jurisdiction in archdeaconries, dioceses of bishops (consistory courts) and provinces of the archbishops of Canterbury and York. There were also areas exempt from archdiaconal and episcopal jurisdictions known as "peculiars".

Ecclesiastical court jurisdiction was by archdeaconries and dioceses, which often - but not always - coincided with county boundaries. Between 1541 and 1836 the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry was extensive, covering the entire counties of Staffordshire and Derbyshire, north Shropshire and north Warwickshire. The bishop of Lichfield and Coventry had general jurisdiction over probate within this area, which was exercised through the Lichfield Consistory Court.

Types of Documents

The types of documents found within the index include:

Adm. – Administration If a person died without leaving a will (intestate), someone (usually a relative) could apply to the probate court for a grant of administration, which would allow them to deal with the estate.

Inv. - A list of the testator's property.

Will - A written statement by which a person sets out how he/she wishes their property etc. to be distributed after their death.

There is a clear seasonal pattern to the proving of wills. Spring and autumn were much more popular periods than summer and winter. Part of this may reflect seasonal death patterns, part may be due to the executor finding the opportunity to go to the court.

Plague, for example, was usually a disease of late summer and early autumn. During an outbreak of plague, people would prefer not to travel, especially to a town where the risk of contagion was generally greater. However, Lichfield exhibits no increase in probate activity in 1665, when one would expect it, knowing that the death rate would have sharply increased. While there was also often a peak in mortality in the worst winter months, this was usually of those categories of people unable or unlikely to make wills – infants and the poorest.

However, winter might make it difficult or impossible to travel; seventeenth century roads are often recorded as impassable in this season. Equally summer was harvest time, and executors involved in agriculture could not afford time off at that time of the year. Almost all executors would be family members and so two-thirds of them would wish to avoid this time.

It is also the case that (as described above) Lichfield held bi-annual courts for granting probate to those unable to get to Lichfield. These courts were generally held in spring and autumn for all the reasons cited above.

Some of the content has been provided by Cliff Webb. Read Webb's in-depth analysis of the Lichfield Consistory Court Wills available in Useful Links and Resources.

The Lichfield Consistory Court Wills include the testator’s occupation. In the index the most prevalent occupation type is Agriculture. Below we have included a breakdown of the various occupational type and its percentage found in the index.

Agriculture (58.75%) Mining, fishing, burning (1.39%) Building trades (1.33%) Cloth and weaving (6.12%) Food, hospitality and drink (3.82%) Gentry (9.01%) Leatherworkers (3.40%) Merchants and traders (2.88%) Metal working (6.31%) Miscellaneous manufacturing (0.63%) Professional (3.08%) Servant (0.42%) Transport (0.19%) Woodworkers (2.69%)

Some of the content has been provided by Cliff Webb. Read Webb's in-depth analysis of the Lichfield Consistory Court Wills available in Useful Links and Resources.