Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills (1384 - 1858)

You can search and download the complete series of PCC wills on DocumentsOnline. This brief overview should help you understand more about the PCC wills and how you can use them in family or local history research. Use the links below to jump to the topics you are interested in.

Introduction

PROB 11 copy book

A will is a formal document setting out what a person wants to happen to their possessions after their death. The PCC Wills, held by The National Archives, are grouped in the series PROB 11 and they cover the period from 1384 to 1858. Until 12 January 1858 all wills had to be proved by church and other courts. The Prerogative Court of Canterbury, the most important of these courts, dealt with the relatively wealthy individuals living mainly in the south of England and most of Wales (what was originally the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury).

The PCC wills on DocumentsOnline are all registered copy wills, meaning they are copies of original probates written into volumes, by clerks at the church courts. Over the years, styles of handwriting changed, and you will find that many of the earlier wills are written in Latin. You can look at samples of typical wills from across the centuries on our sample wills page.

You can search the wills using first and last names, place, occupation and date of probate. You can search on each of these fields individually, and use search tools such as Boolean operators and wildcards. For more general help on searching, please see the search tips.

Structure of a will

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Wills are on average a page long, although they can range from a mere five lines to more than twenty pages.

Your will might not be at the start of the image you ordered; the PCC clerk did not usually begin a new will on a new page but began copying it immediately after the preceding will. So you could also find the beginning of another will immediately after the will you ordered.

The wills of Jane Austen and Susanna Smith on the sample wills page illustrate the structure of a will, and demonstrate some of the terms used below. You should also bear in mind the following points:

PROB 11 copy book

• In some instances a will may consist of a codicil only. An earlier will may not necessarily exist.
• A will beginning with the word "memoranda" means that the will was spoken and may well have been given on a person's deathbed
• Prior to 1804, sentences as well as wills appear in PROB 11. A sentence does not necessarily contain the same details as a will so we have differentiated between the two. When you search, your results will be described as either a will or a sentence. An example of a sentence can be viewed on our sample wills page
• Dates have been converted to the modern reckoning for wills prior to 1752

What language are these wills written in?

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The majority of the probate wills are written in English; by the 17th century, wills written in Latin were rare. Wills written in French, Dutch or other European languages have an authenticated translation in the PCC registered copies. But this time only the probate clause on occasions was still written in Latin.

Before 1733, texts, sentences and probates clauses were written in Latin (with the exception of those from the Interregnum, which are in English). Generally the wills follow a standard format.

If you want to learn how to read old handwriting, you can try our online palaeography tutorial, which will correct your transcriptions line by line and offer helpful hints.

You can also try our beginners' online Latin tutorial, which covers the period 1086 - 1733, when official documents were written in Latin. There is also a step-by-step online tutorial to teach advanced Latin.

The National Archives and DocumentsOnline are unable to provide a transcription or translation service. If you have any problems reading a will you have bought, or need a translation of a Latin will, our website contains a list of independent researchers who can be contacted. We also have a list of specialists for the transcription and translation of records in Latin.

What could a will help me to discover?

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Wills as individual documents form an important resource for family historians, helping to build a picture of an ancestor's wealth and social status, land and property, as well as their likes and dislikes. Local and social historians can also use them. The wills indicate economic habits and trends and changes in society. Obviously there is no guarantee of finding the same information in every will but if you are lucky, you may discover some of the following:

Some other facts you may might find surprising:

The court system before 1858

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Before 1858 there was no single system or place in which wills were proved. Instead there was a hierarchical ecclesiastical court system. The country at this time was divided into two provinces - York and Canterbury - and each was presided over by an archbishop. These provinces were split into a number of dioceses (each with at least two bishops), which were in turn, divided into several archdeaconries, which were then split into rural deaneries. On 12 January 1858 these courts ceased, and jurisdiction for the granting of probate was passed to the new secular Court of Probate.

The Prerogative Courts of Canterbury and York covered roughly the geographic areas below:

Factors determining where a will would be proved

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There were three main factors determining in which court a will would be proved:

If the property was...	The Will was proved in the...
Within one archdeaconry	Archdeacon's court
In more than one archdeaconry but all in the same diocese	Bishop's court (Consistory/Commissary court)
In more than one diocese	Archbishop's prerogative court
If the goods were valued at more than £5 (or £10 within London), in more than one diocese	Archbishop's prerogative court

Of course, there were exceptions to these general rules:

Exceptional circumstances...
During the Interregnum all church courts were suspended, so all wills in England and Wales were dealt with in the Court for Proving of Wills and the Granting of Administrations, which sat in London in place of the PCC. After this these records were merged with those of the PCC, so the PCC holds all probate records for this period.
If a will bequeathed goods to the value of £5 (£10 in London) which were dispersed in the north of England, and the south of England or Wales then the will was proved in both Archbishops' courts - first York, then Canterbury
If a property-owner in England or Wales died overseas, such as sailors or soldiers, then their will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury regardless of where their property was held

The Prerogative Court of Canterbury (based in London) was the most senior church court. It would be overly broad to suggest that only those wills of sufficient wealth were proved there. In the early years most people would not have met the minimum £5 bequest required for a will to be proved in the PCC. But over the years this amount did not increase and gradually it extended to all ranks of society. Karen Grannum, co-author of Wills and Other Probate Records, estimates that by the 1830s, a third of all wills made in England and Wales were proved by the PCC.

Research guides and further information

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Many of the terms used are specific to the PCC wills and there are explanations and definitions in our glossary page which you may find useful.

You can view samples of typical wills from across the centuries on our sample wills page.

Official documents were written in Latin between 1086 and 1733. If you need help with Latin you can try our beginners' online tutorial. There is also a step-by-step online tutorial to teach advanced Latin. Or you might prefer a book such as Denis Stuart's Latin for Local and Family Historians, A Beginner's Guide which you'll find in The National Archives bookshop.

If you need help in reading the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800 have a look at our online Palaeography tutorial.

The National Archives and DocumentsOnline do not provide a transcription or translation service. If you have any problems reading a will you have bought, or need a translation of a Latin will, The National Archives website contains a list of independent researchers who can be contacted. It also has a list of specialists for the transcription and translation of records in Latin.

DocumentsOnline holds a collection of original wills of famous people.

DocumentsOnline also holds Royal Naval seamen's wills. These are original wills of Warrant officers and seamen who joined the Royal Navy between 1786 and 1882.

Use the National Archives online currency converter to get an idea of what the amounts might be worth in today's money.

If you have a transcribed will to share with other researchers, see Your Archives, The National Archives' online community of records users.

The National Archives has one of the world's richest holdings of historical mapping. You can find out more by going to our Maps pages.

There are also many more facts and information concerning PPC wills in our FAQ page.

Research Guides

There are several research guides available in the Catalogue that provide general information on probate records, including PCC wills. You can also browse the full A to Z of research guides:

For more information on wills and testaments throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, see the FamilyRecords.gov.uk website.

For information on obtaining a copy of a will proved after 1858, see the Court Service website.

The National Archives Bookshop

These are just some of the books available from The National Archives bookshop:

Wills and Other Probate Records by Karen Grannum and Nigel Taylor (The National Archives 2004)

Probate Jurisdictions: Where To Look For Wills, Gibson Guides series, 5th edition, compiled by Jeremy Gibson & Else Churchill (FFHS, 2002)

When Death Do Us Part: Understanding and interpreting the probate records of early modern England by Arkell, Evans and Goose (Local Population Studies, 2000)

Words from Wills and other Probate Records, by Stuart A Raymond (FFHS). This book provides definitions for archaic words commonly found in early modern probate records.

Tracing Your Ancestors in The National Archives: The Website and Beyond, by Amanda Bevan (The National Archives 2006). Now in its seventh edition, this is the only exhaustive guide to The National Archives' holdings.

Early Modern Genealogy: Researching Your Family History 1600 - 1838, Paul Chambers (Sutton, 2006)