Prerogative Court Of Canterbury Wills Index 1750-1800
Discover if you British ancestor left a will between 1750 and 1800 by searching the index of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Search more than 200,000 records that can tell you the name, address and occupation of your ancestor.
See description
Discover if you British ancestor left a will between 1750 and 1800 by searching the index of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Search more than 200,000 records that can tell you the name, address and occupation of your ancestor.
Learn about these records
Each record contains a transcript of the original. The amount of information varies but you can find out the following about your ancestor:
- Name
- Year of birth
- Year and month of probate
- Occupation
- Address (county)
Where the residence is not in England or Wales, the country will usually be given. It’s normally either Scotland or Ireland but occasionally “Foreign Parts” will crop up.
There are 207,959 records.
The Prerogative Court of Canterbury was a church court which fell under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was responsible for the probate of wills and the trials of testamentary causes where the value of the goods involved was more than five pounds and the property was held in two or more counties within Great Britain.
Wills could also be proven at York but Canterbury covered the south of England (including London) and Wales. The archive also includes a large number of individual wills for individuals who died overseas but who owned property in Britain.
Copyright belongs to the Society of Genealogists. You can also order copies of the original documents directly from the Society of Genealogists. See Useful links and resources.