What do these records tell you?
The York Peculiars Probate index gives:
testator's last name and first name
occupation
places associated with person
type(s) and date(s) of the documents (there is often more than one document)
court concerned
Borthwick Institute reference to the original document.
The original documents provide a great deal of valuable information to the family historian, and copies of these can be ordered online.
Example index records
Example 1. ABBOT, James, butcher,,Haxby,1753,W. Inv. B,,Strensall
This refers to a will proved in the Prebendal Court of Strensall in 1753. The documents include the will, and inventory of the testator's property, and a bond (required from the executor to ensure that the duties were carried out properly.
Example 2. Carnabie,Isabell and Agnes ? Daus of John C",late par of St John ,,Sep 17 1593,Tui,f.5,Hexamshire
This entry refers to a tuition agreement, relating to the guardianship of the daughters, Isabell and Agnes, of John Carnabie of the parish of St John in Hexhamshire (now in Northumberland). The daughters must therefore have been under 12 years of age. (The index also contains records referring to a later tuition agreement concerning the same girls, plus one of the same year relating to what is probably another sister, Anne.)
More information on the York Peculiars Probate Index
This database makes available for the first time online, and exclusively on British Origins, a comprehensive index to over 25,000 wills and other documents proved in the peculiar courts of the province of York between 1456 and 1858. All the original documents are held by the Borthwick Institute. About Church of England Courts and Peculiars
For many of the people referred to, multiple documents are available, for example multiple wills, will plus codicils, inventories of the testator's property are particularly common and there are also many tuition agreements concerning children. The different documents are listed in the index.
Copies of the source documents may be ordered online.
Probate before 1858
Prior to 1858, wills were proved in an ecclesiastical court. Which court dealt with a particular will depended on where property was held.
Parishes of the Church of England were grouped into archdeaconries, and a group of archdeaconries formed a diocese (ie the area of a bishop's jurisdiction). Each diocese belonged either to the ecclesiastical province of York or of Canterbury. The province of York had jurisdiction in the counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Westmorland and Yorkshire; Canterbury had jurisdiction over the rest of England and Wales.
If a person's property lay wholly within one archdeaconry, the will was generally proved in that archdeacon's court. But if property worth £5 or more were owned elsewhere the will would be proved in a higher court, that of a bishop or archbishop.
If property were owned in more than one archdeaconry in the same diocese, the will would be proved in the bishop's court, referred to as a Commissary Court.
If the property were owned in more than one diocese, the will would be proved in one of the two archbishops' prerogative courts. If the property were all within the province of York, probate would be dealt with by the Prerogative Court of York (PCY), otherwise by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC). So if property were owned in both provinces, probate was dealt with by PCC, the senior court.
The archbishop of Canterbury was also bishop of the diocese of Canterbury, and the bishop's court for Canterbury was called the "Court of the Commissary General; similarly for the diocese of York, where the bishop's court was called the "Consistery Court of York".
Some parishes were situated in one archdeaconry or diocese but subject to the jurisdiction of another court (that of archdeaconry, diocese, Dean & Chapter of a cathedral, or a local lord of the manor - manorial court). Such parishes were called peculiars. So if a person held property in a peculiar parish, the will may have been proved in the peculiar court of that parish (if the property were wholly within that parish), or the court of another jurisdiction (if some of the property were held elsewhere).
A peculiar court may be a:
prebendal court (the responsibility of a priest on the staff of a cathedral (eg Prebendal Court of Bilton)
manorial court (court of the lord of the manor)
court of a cathedral dean or other ecclesiastical official (eg Court of the Subdean of York, Court of Succentor of York)
Places
While the overwhelming majority of the documents relate to persons with property in Yorkshire, though testators were associated with other places in Britain also, and some died overseas (eg East Indies, Gibraltar), or at sea. The references to place primarily relate to property held there, but also to the place where the person died, or where they may have lived.
Click here to find which court dealt with a particular place.
Language of the documents
The first will in English at the Borthwick Institute is dated 1443. By the early 1500s most wills were in English, and by 1558 it is almost certain that a will will be in English. Until 1732 the Act Books entries (which contain a brief outline of the grant of probate) were written in Latin, and Latin continued until then to be used for legal parts of documents even if the bulk of the document were written in English.
Contents of the database
The database records provide the following information:
Name: surname & forename
You can search on surname and on forename. There are often multiple variant spellings of surnames shown, eg PATTRICK(E)/PATTERICKE/PARTERICKE. You will be able to retrieve records regardless of which spelling you may be familiar with, particularly is you use the NameX option when searching.
This field (or the occupation field) often contains additional information, particularly names of children.
Occupation
Not always present, this is usually the occupation, eg "Butcher", "Merchant"; sometimes a relationship is shown, eg "widow of John Turner, bookseller" - where other names are mentioned these have also been indexed. The occupation sometimes appears in the name field.
Place
This field usually contain the place where the testator lived, but often where they died, sometimes both.
Date
Usually, but not always present. Usually the date of probate or of the will. The full date is sometimes given, otherwise just the year. The year is given as Old Style and New Style for dates before 25 March.
Reference
This field - which is not always used - gives the number of the folio (sheet) within the volume containing the original. Note that if you are ordering hard copies from the Borthwick Institute via the British Origins database, the reference data is forwarded automatically to the Institute.
Ordering hard copies of original documents
You can order a hard copy of any document by simply clicking of the "Add to cart" button alongside each record. The cost of each hard document, including first class or airmail postage, is £10.
Other "York Series" Probate Indexes
All the indexes to probate documents held at the Borthwick Institute will become available online on British Origins. In addition to the indexes to the Peculiar Courts, an index to the Medieval probate records of the Prerogative & Exchequer Courts are currently online.
