Created by Julie Goucher, 2023

The web-Wednesday for this week is a topic focus on WILLS, after all, it is #WillsWednesday!

Wills give us tremendous insight into who:

1. a person, the testator was,
2. people they cared about, and
3. the items they treasured.

This post is not looking at the language in wills, nor the demographics relating to the proving of wills. Instead it acknowledges that wills, inventories, and any other associated documents can be found in a variety of places, and all add value to our genealogical research, therefore, I list below a selection of links:

• Oxfordshire Wills – Transcribed wills and related documents
• Quaker FHS Wills – Transcribed wills
• London Consistory Wills 1492 – 1547 – Transcriptions
• Calendar of wills proved & enrolled in the Court of Husting 1258-1358 – Transcriptions
• Calendar of wills proved & enrolled in the Court of Hustings 1358-1688 -Transcriptions
• Kent Wills (Probate Records) – Canterbury 1396-1858 (formerly East Kent) – Index
• Hertfordshire Names Online Will Search – Index to surviving wills and related documents from the  records of the Archdeaconries of Huntingdon (Hitchin Division) and St Albans prior to 1858
• North East Inheritance Database – (Pre 1858) links to images which are available at FamilySearch
• North East, Cumbrian & Lancaster – (Pre 1858) in book format, and links to FamilySearch, with access to images
• Wills at The National Archives (TNA)
  • Country Court Death Duty Registers 1796-1811
  • Famous Wills 1552-1854
  • Wills 1384-1858
  • Wills of Royal Navy & Royal Marine Personnel 1786-1882
• Wills proved in the Welsh Ecclesiastical Court (Pre 1858)

These sites are all able to be accessed free of charge.

A final comment –  please don’t forget the Wills Consultation Paper which I wrote about previously.  You will find the relevant links, to the paper and petition in my earlier post the closing date is 23 February 2024