Introduction
No experienced genealogist needs telling of the value of wills. They can bridge generations with certainty in a way which parish registers rarely can, and make mention of many people with relationship to the testator stated. The average will mentions 10 people, and many refer to far more; the majority of the people mentioned in a will are related to or are friends of the testator. However, for the full value of wills to be realised they must be abstracted, with every person, place and (as far as possible) subject in the original indexed.
The value of abstracts was recognised by the Surrey Record Society, who published two printed volumes of abstracts of Surrey wills between 1915 and 1921 (named "Spage" and "Herringman", after the first testator in each register). These volumes were later reprinted by West Surrey Family History Society, who subsequently published 39 more volumes of abstracts between 1993 and 2002. The 41 sets of microfiche completed a set of fully-indexed abstracts to all extant wills proved at the Archdeaconry Court of Surrey and at the Commissary Court of Surrey. There are over 28,000 abstracts, covering the period 1470 to 1856. The index includes names of over a half of a million people mentioned in these wills. With the exception of Spage and Herringman all abstracts and the associated indexes in the Surrey Will Abstracts collection were created by Cliff Webb. Cliff Webb has given The Origins Network exclusive rights to make the complete set of Surrey Will Abstracts available online for the first time.
This resource is quite unique; we are aware of no other part of the British Isles where such a resource has been created. Researchers into Surrey ancestors, and social history researchers generally, now have online access to one of the most important sets of data available anywhere.
Structure of the abstracts
The abstracts were published on microfiche as a set of 41 volumes, each containing abstracts of wills from one or more original registers. This online collection follows the structure of these microfilm abstracts, alllowing easy linkage between the online abstracts, the microfiche publications, and the original registers.
The abstracts made by Cliff Webb are considerably fuller than the ones published by the Surrey Record Society (Volumes 1 and 7). Each abstract was compiled with a view to making consultation of the original unnecessary in most circumstances. The abstracts include all personal names and relationships, place names, occupations, bequests of money and, in most cases, bequests of furniture, livestock, clothes and other possessions, and descriptions of lands. Unnecessary legal repetition has been removed.
Abstracts follow:
Abstract ID
name of the testator
date of the will
the substantive text
(ie excluding legal and formulaic material)
the names of the executor(s), overseer(s) and witnesses
date of probate
and LMA reference to the source document with the folio number
Abstract ID identifies the Volume and sequential number of the abstract (corresponding to the position of the will in the original register; the reference number does not appear in the original). For example, Abstract IDs in Volume 16 are prefixed by SW/16_; thus SW/16_12 is the abstract of the 12th will in Volume 16.
Example SW/16_324 is a typical abstract - the 324th will in Volume 16 (Summary table shows Vol. 16 contains Filed & unregistered Wills from 1572-81). Dated 12 Aug 1577, probate was granted on 16 March 1579 (New Style); we cannot tell exactly when William Thomplinson died, but it must have been between these two dates. Although this is a fairly short abstract, ir contains the names of 8 people other than the testator, with 5 different surnames. Example SW/25_0051, from Volume 25 (Commissary Court of Surrey, 1674-96) has 17 names, with 9 surnames. Some wills have several dozen names.
Many wills have inventories attached, and a few wills list goods in such detail that they virtually represent inventories. Example SW/40_259, however, is exceptional.
Introductions to volumes Introductory text to each volume contain references to specific abstracts; some abstracts contain references to other abstracts. Any abstract can be retrieved via the Abstract ID search. Particularly comprehensive introductions are those to Intoduction to Volume 1 "Spage", published by Surrey Record Society in 1916, that by Cliff Webb for Volume 5A "Pykman". The latter gives information not just on the Pyman register abstracts, but on wills generally in Tudor times and later; the structure and content of Tudor wills is discussed in detail.
Source references
The abstracts contain folio references for the original register entry, so that with the Source Document reference you can identify the original will (strictly a copy of the will) held at the London Metropolitan Archives (with the exception of the British Library manuscript abstracted in Volume 5). This Summary Table relates the online abstract references to the original microfiche publications, and provides references to the source documents. Click here to view an image of an original entry.
Filed wills, original wills, registered wills
Although the term 'original wills' is sometimes used to refer to filed wills, this is actually a misnomer; most filed wills are office copies, not the originals, which presumably went to the executor. It must also be emphasised that these abstracts are of will registers, ie books into which copies of the wills were transcribed. Almost all the wills registered have as counterparts a filed copy of the will. While some of these filed copies have been examined to try to fill in the few gaps in legibility, etc., the vast majority have not. In some cases, therefore, there may be substantial differences. For example, it is far from unknown for a list of debtors and debts, attached to or part of the filed will, not to be recorded in the will register. Having found a will of interest, therefore, the thorough searcher will also examine the filed will. To facilitate this process, the reference number of the filed will has been given - these are the references beginning DW/PA/5 (for Archdeaconry Court wills) or DW/PC/5 (for Commissary Court wills); the registers have references beginning DW/PA/7 (for the Archdeaconry Court) and DW/PC/7 (for the Commissary Court).
Inventory values
Many wills are annotated with the value of the inventory and occasionally with the date the inventory was taken. This information has been added in round brackets at the end of the will, after the reference. Inventories can provide an extraordinary amount of detail about the testator's property, as in that of Ann Turner Example SW/40_259. While inventories do not survive for all periods, some wills list goods in such detail that they virtually represent inventories, as in Example SW/22_70.