Where to find Hertfordshire wills
WHAT RECORDS SURVIVE ?
Archdeaconry of Middlesex (Essex and Herts Division)
Location of original records: Essex Record Office, Wharf Road, Chelmsford CM2 6YT
Jurisdiction: 25 Hertfordshire parishes to the east of the A10 (Amwell, Anstey, Barkway, Barley, Braughing, Buckland, Cheshunt, Eastwick, Gilston, Great Hormead, Hunsdon, Layston, Meesden, Stocking Pelham, Reed, Sawbridgeworth, Standon, Stanstead Abbots, Stanstead St Margarets, Thorley, Thundridge, Ware, Widford, Wormley, Wyddial)
Holdings: Wills, 1602-1857; will registers, 1538-1858; admons , 1669-1857. Name indexes have been published and are available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
Archdeaconry of St Albans
Location of records: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies
Jurisdiction: 22 Hertfordshire parishes (Chipping Barnet, East Barnet, Bushey, Codicote, Elstree, Hexton, Abbots Langley, Newnham, Northaw, Norton, Rebourn, Rickmansworth, Ridge, Sandridge, Sarratt, Shephall, St Pauls Walden, Watford and the St Albans parishes of St Andrew, St Michael, St Peter, and St Stephen) and the Buckinghamshire parishes of Aston Abbots, Granborough, Little Horwood and Winslow
Holdings: Original wills, 1518-1858; will registers, 1415-1857; inventories , 1518-1764; only one probate account dated 1484 is known to survive copied into a will register (Ref. 2AR43v-44v); admons, 1540-1857 (Ref. ASA26). A card index to testators is available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies..
Archdeaconry of Huntingdon (Hitchin Division)
Location of records: Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies and Huntingdon Record Office, Grammar School Walk, Huntingdon PE18 6LF
Jurisdiction: The 76 remaining Hertfordshire parishes (except Albury, Bishops Stortford, Broxbourne, Little Hadham, Much Hadham, Little Hormead, Brent Pelham, Furneux Pelham and Royston (see below).
Holdings:(Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies)
:) original wills, 1585-1857; will registers, 1557-1843; inventories, 1568-1789 (Ref. AHH22 includes some admons); admons and accounts , 1609-1857 (Ref. AHH23). A card index to testators is available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
(Huntingdon:) will registers, 1479-1652 containing Hertfordshire entries; a microfilm of the registers dated 1566-1609 is available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
A manuscript index 1479-1652 of Hertfordshire testators whose wills are held at Huntingdon is also available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
Peculiar Court of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral
Location of records: Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2P 2EJ
Jurisdiction: Albury, Brent Pelham and Furneux Pelham
Holdings: Wills, 1660-1837; will registers, 1535-1837; probate and administration act books, 1646-1837; inventories, 1660-1725; accounts of fees, 1748-1780. A card index of Hertfordshire testators 1560-1837 is available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
Commissary Court of London for Essex and Herts
Location of records: Essex Record Office, Wharf Road, Chelmsford CM2 6YT
Jurisdiction: Bishops Stortford, Broxbourne, Little Hadham, Much Hadham, Little Hormead and Royston
Holdings: Wills, 1441-1858; will registers, 1553-1858; admons, 1669-1858. Name indexes to testators have been published and are available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
Consistory Court of the Bishop of Lincoln
Location of records: Lincolnshire Archives, St Rumbold Street, Lincoln LN2 5AB
Jurisdiction: Whole of Hertfordshire except Middlesex Archdeaconry before 1550 (St Albans Archdeaconry had an exempt jurisdiction from 1163); after 1550 the area of the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon only, to 1845
Holdings: The following all contain Hertfordshire wills: Bishops’ Registers, 1320-1547; other diocesan manuscripts, 1489-1588; will registers (and some original wills), 1506-1858; inventories, 1508-1851; administrations, c1569-1858; administration accounts, 1559-1853; A published index to testators is available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
Consistory Court of the Bishop of London
Location of records: London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB
Jurisdiction: The whole diocese of London (including the archdeaconry of St Albans from 1550) except the peculiars. This court would replace the lower courts when they were temporarily suspended, for example during the bishop’s visitation; this happened in the St Albans archdeaconry for three months every four years.
Holdings: Original wills and administrations, 1507-1858; registers of wills and administrations, 1492, 1514-1858; vicar-generals’ books which include probate and administration acts, 1521-1685; very few probate inventories have survived for this court. A card index of Hertfordshire testators 1514-1811 is available at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies. (This is worth checking if a St Albans will can’t be found amongst the archdeaconry records).
Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC)
Location of records: The National Archives (The Public Record office), Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU
Jurisdiction: The Province of Canterbury
Holdings: Original wills, 1383-1858 (ref. PROB10); will registers, 1383-1858 (ref. PROB 11); administration act books, 1559-1858 (ref. PROB 6); inventories, 1417-1782 (but few before 1660); some accounts, 1667-1722 (ref. PROB 5)
Name indexes have been published covering wills 1383-1700, (1701-1749 on fiche), 1750-1800 and (1853-1857 on fiche) and admons, 1559-1700, 1750-1800 all at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
Principal Probate Registry
Location of records: First Avenue House, 42-49 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NP
Jurisdiction: The whole of England and Wales, and British Dependencies ie, English people dying abroad in Barbados, or India to 1947.
Holdings: All wills, admons etc proved in England and Wales and Dependencies, 1858 to date. An index to these wills proved 1858-1943 is available on microfiche at Hertforshire Archives and Local Studies.
Full copies of these wills can be obtained from the District Registrar of the Probate Sub-Registry, Duncombe Place, York YO1 2EA.
