An index to probates at the Prerogative Court of York 1800-1842 covering surnames A-G only. The original index was prepared by Harriet Blair-Fish and typed up by Susan Watson and Beryl Schumer.

Notes from the original introduction

Coverage of the index

Periods:

the calendar volumes rarely coincide exactly with calendar years. The index periods have been designed to coincide as closely as possible with the volumes while always covering full calendar years and remaining manageable in size.

Vacancy jurisdiction:

The see of York was vacant for a ten-week period from 3 Nov 1807 to 19 Jan 1808. The Dean & Chapter dealt with all probates indiscriminately during this time, ie there are no PCY probates as such. It follows that there can be no index references for Areas 7 and 8 for this period. For the other Areas entries have been indexed if a county name (or common place in Ripon, Hexhamshire or Allertonshire) was found.

Area indexes:

Where there could be real uncertainty places have been included in two indexes and, where a county name is normally given, this is preceded by a query mark. No entirely satisfactory �home� has been found for one or two entries which are almost certainly corruptions from the original will. Amusing examples of surnames corrupted in this way at PCC are quoted in the preface to vol.1 of �An Index to the Wills proved in the PCC, 1750-1800� (ed AJ Camp for the Society of Genealogists, 1976)

Quality of the source material:

The microfilms are generally perfectly legible. One exception is the volume for 1809-14, letters B-D, where the bottoms of many pages are badly worn. Some indexed entries have been checked against the originals and/or parallel sources, for example, if the surname was entirely illegible.

Abbreviations

Christian names: the short forms are mostly as calendared. For 1827-42 a few may have been inadvertently expanded in transcription.

Place names: Gt and Lt; N,S,E & W; U for Upper; apostrophes omitted in eg Aldbro (�). Occasionally names have been slightly contracted to fit the typing line.

Dying &c: this would seem to mean �dying abroad beyond the seas�, a phrase which does occasionally appear in full. Alternatively it may be used for �dying at sea�

- in place of a probate type means that this column was illegible.

- in other columns indicates no entry in that part of the calendar.

References to other sources

Gibson�s �Simplified Guide� is now in a 2nd edition (1982).

Notts RO has a copy of the typescript indexes for 1688-1731.

Northumberland RO holds extracts from selected York wills of people form Durham and Northumberland, in the Raine notebooks.

Statistics

Early 1820s contrasted with the early 1830s:

About 10% of the joint calendar for the earlier period has been indexed in Areas 1-6 and 9, as compared with about 15%. As much as 75% of the calendar at this time appears to be concerned with people from York diocese at the Exchequer court, instead of nearer 50%, but this is to some extent offset by a rather higher proportion of all indexed entries being extra-diocesan than at the later time.

The same proportion (10%) of all indexed entries are extra-provincial at both periods but at PCC the figure for the earlier period is 25% compared to 10% in the 1830s. The joint York calendar is only about 20% of that for PCC in the early 1810s. Extra �diocesan probates are distributed quite differently in the earlier period: using figures for 1800-18 the percentages are Area 2 30%, Area 3 27%, Area 1 20%, Area 9 17% and Areas 4, 5 &6 together 7%.

Some 12,500 probates have been indexed for the whole period 1800-42, A-G only. Of these about 10% are extra-provincial and a further 25% are extra-diocesan. The diocese of York, including Nottingham Archdeaconry, accounts for the remaining 8,000.

People from Places in the Diocese, Archdeaconry or Other Ecclesiastical Area (d)(f)(g) indicated below:

1 Chester (b)(c)(e) incl Richmond W, Carlisle, Sodor & Man Province of York�
2 Richmond East (b) (c) �all places in Yorks unless otherwise stated. Province of York
3 Durham (b) (c)(d)(e). Province of York�
4 Lincoln�all places in Lincs unless otherwise stated. Province of Canterbury�
5 Leicester�all places in Leics unless otherwise stated. Province of Canterbury�
6 Lichfield�all places in Derbys unless otherwise stated. Province of Canterbury
7 Nottingham (b)(c)�all places in Notts unless otherwise stated. Province of Canterbury
8 York excl Nottingham (b)(c)�all places in Yorks unless otherwise stated. Province of Canterbury
9 All other areas incl overseas (d) Province of Canterbury

Notes

Chancery probates are also included, identified by CHANCERY in place of month and type of probate. Exchequer (York diocesan) Court probates occasionally appear to refer to places in areas 1-6 and 9: where these have been noticed the reference has been included here, distinguished by an asterisk between year and month of probate. Exchequer probates for areas 7 and 8 are omitted.

Certain parishes, townships, chapelries and hamlets are not in the York index but in the stated area index:

-Aighton, Bailey, Chaighley, Stoneyhurst, Hurst Green
(p Mitton, diocese of York, Lancs county); Whitewell (p Whalley, diocese of Chester, Yorks county); Saddleworth (p Rochdale, diocese of Chester, Yorks county); Bentham, Clapham, Sedbergh, Thornton-in-Lonsdale with their associated chapelries (Richmond West, Yorks county)

AREA 1-all parishes and peculiars within the overall boundaries of the deaneries of Boroughbridge, Richmond and Catterick

AREA 2-Craike, Sockburn and Allertonshire: Birkby, Cowesby, Hutton Bonville, Leake, Nether Silton, N Otterington, Osmotherly, Thornton-le-Street, -Beans, -Moor, Deighton, High Worsall, Brompton, Kirby Sigston, W Rounton, Northallerton and associated hamlets (peculiars of Durham)
AREA 3-Bawtry, Austerfield, Blaxton, Aulkley, Rossington (Notts ArchD)
AREA 7 The Archbishop�s liberties of Ripon and Hexham are included in AREAS 2 and 3 respectively. Places within peculiars of the Dean and Chapter of York, and other peculiars except as mentioned in (b), are similarly included in the most geographically appropriate AREA

Berwick and Berwick on Tweed are included in AREA 9
Alston and Garrigill (diocese of Durham, county of Cumberland) are included in AREA 3

Where two or more places are mentioned, entries have been made in all appropriate areas

The many changes in ecclesiastical boundaries in the 19th century had no effect on the traditional probate boundaries

Key

w widow(er)
T or W will
c chapelry
w/ wife of
A admon
t township
s spinster
C codicil
p parish
b bachelor
Adbn admon of goods not yet administered yr younger
Tu tuition (boys 15-,girls 13-)
er elder
Cu curation (boys 14+,girls 12+)

Primary Sources

The joint calendar to the Act Books of the Prerogative and Exchequer Courts of York, LDS microfilm at Society of Genealogists from Borthwick original

Chancery/Consistory Court calendar, microfilm as above; printed as Borthwick Bulletin 1(i) and YARS vol 93

Sources for Area Boundaries

� A Simplified Guide to Probate Jurisdictions: where to look for wills, JSW Gibson, FFHAS/Gulliver Press, 1980

� Genealogical Research in England & Wales, vol II, Smith & Gardner, 1959

� Yorkshire Ancient Parishes & Chapelries (map), Yorks Arch Soc, 1973

� Road Atlas of Gt Britain (3 miles: 1 inch), Johnston & Bacon, 1970

� Parish/county series of maps, Inst of Her & Gen Studies, Canterbury

Indexing of Wills, Admons etc At the Prerogative Court of York�An Introduction

General aims of the project

1 To make the probate records of the Prerogative court of York very much more accessible to the researcher, and draw attention to their potential.

2. To index the records for at least the period 1800-1842, a time of considerable population movement and socioeconomic change in northern England, but also a time of relatively poor personal records: many printed parish registers end in 1812; the more crowded town parishes became, the less informative their registers; nonconformity and under-registration increase during the period; few monumental inscriptions have survived, relative to the number of burials; detailed records of manorial courts are less frequently found for the nineteenth century than for earlier periods. By contrast, resources for the 1840s and 1850s are plentiful; central registration, full personal census records, electoral rolls and pollbooks based on the new uniform franchises, and the development of extensive and intensive commercial directories, together with a higher proportion of the population making wills.

Target users

1. Family historians looking, for example, for all occurrences of a given surname in a given area, or for a specific probate which is missing from the most likely local probate court.
2. Local historians using probate records, for example to help reconstitute family or social networks, or to provide information on the local economy.

3. In particular those researchers in the above groups who are already using the probate records now at Carlisle, Chester, Douglas, Durham, Leeds, Leicester, Lichfield, Lincoln, Preston and (certain aspects only) York. A basic grasp of probate jurisdictions in and around the northern province is assumed; essentially the Prerogative Court of York had jurisdiction over any person with goods in more than one diocese of the northern province, or more than one jurisdiction within the diocese of York itself.

The Prerogative v the Exchequer Court

Probates for these two York courts are calendared together, PCY entries being suffixed �Prog�. This joint calendar is about one quarter the size of the PCC calendar for an equivalent period. In the early 1830s about 50% of all entries in the York calendar are for people within the diocese of York at the Exchequer Court, the local court for the whole diocese which operated through the Act Books of its numerous constituent deaneries. Of the remainder (see note a. overleaf for the criteria used) some two thirds also relate to places within the diocese of York (ie areas 7 and 8); these have been extracted solely to ensure complete coverage of the other areas, as their intrinsic value is extremely limited. The predominance of peculiars within the index to Area 8 does however seem to support the statement by Gardner & Smith that �if the deceased possessed property within a Peculiar and elsewhere, the Episcopal court sometimes claimed jurisdiction but usually the Prerogative Courts of the Archbishop claimed superior jurisdiction�. Regarding Area 7, Nottingham Archdeaconry, it appears that by the 1830s the majority of probates were being issued by the Prerogative court rather than through the Exchequer; this local phenomenon is known to both the Borthwick Institute and Notts Record Office.

It will be clear that to index the whole York calendar would be a major undertaking. The current project was conceived as an aid to the extra-diocesan researcher, for whom speculative visits to the Borthwick Institute at York involve disproportionate inconvenience both to themselves and to other visitors with a stronger claim on its unique resources and limited facilities (bookings have often to be made weeks in advance). Responsibility for diocesan parish records has in fact been divided between a number of record offices, with the Borthwick retaining only York Archdeaconry; for details see pp 21-2 and p 60 onwards of �A Guide to Genealogical Sources in the Borthwick�, 1981. In addition Notts RO holds the original wills (but not the more complete set of registered copies) for the Archdeaconry of Nottingham, together with some Archdeaconry Act Books containing both Exchequer and Prerogative business. The Deanery Act Books for the whole diocese, and the Prerogative Court Act Books, are all still at the Borthwick as are the 27 manuscript calendar volumes on which the current index is based and the calendars to the probate registers.

Areas

The division of extracted references into area indexes is intended to focus attention on potentially useful entries by relating them primarily to the existing probate holdings in northern record offices (with the exception that the geographical record office is substituted if the main series is at York, eg for the Dean & Chapter peculiars in Lancashire , or Hexham). These short indexes can be easily scanned, eliminating cross-references between related surnames. Distribution is also simplified. One major complication, the intricate boundaries between York diocese, Allertonshire and Richmond East is fundamental to any work on ecclesiastical sources for the North and West Ridings. The allocation of places to areas is a more general problem, as the calendar is inconsistent in quoting counties for places outside Yorkshire (Durham townships may for example be included in Area 8 by default, especially if no parish name is cited); and many place names recur across Yorkshire, between the different jurisdictions, with no consistent use of suffixes such as Holderness, Cleveland or �on-Dearne� to distinguish eg Alborough, Marske or Wath.

It is hoped that �areas� contribute more than they conceal. Any index based on a calendar itself based on Act Books based on handwritten originals is certain to contain errors and omissions, and should never be relied on as a complete alternative source. As a short cut to the majority of relevant entries, however, such an index can be extremely valuable, and problems created by division into areas must be viewed in this overall context. Area 9 contained some 20% of the 1000 extra-diocesan references for A-G, 1827-34; Area 1 30%; Areas 2 and 3 20% each; Areas 4, 5 and 6 about 11% together: and such figures are themselves of interest. As a proportion of all 3000 extracted references for this period for A-G, the extra-provincial area as a whole accounts for 11%: a very similar proportion is found in the PCC indexes for the same period.

There are a number of good reasons for the presence of �extra-provincials� in the York calendar:

� It is the location of the property (apart from real estate), not the place of residence, which determines which court has jurisdiction. Areas 4,5 and 6 on the southern borders of the province may be partly explained on this basis

â�¢ Again with the exception of real estate, property valued at over �£5 (�£10 in London) and split between the provinces was supposed to be declared in both provinces at the Prerogative courts

� The jurisdiction of PCC over people dying abroad or at sea does not seem to have been enforced very strictly in this period

� As mentioned by Gardner & Smith, it may have become acceptable practice by this period for executors and administrators to use the court most convenient to them rather than to travel to the most appropriate one.

Notes on Primary Sources

The joint PCY/Exchequer manuscript calendars are at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York. From 1743 probates issued during archiepiscopal vacancies are included in the calendar although strictly part of the records of the Dean & Chapter. The calendar also includes probates for the Archbishop�s liberties of Ripon (as Exchequer court business) and Hexham (mainly as Prerogative business). Occupations are very rarely cited in the calendar, but marital status is common especially for administrations.

The calendars cover the period 1731-1858, and have been microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints; copies of these films and those of the Act Books 1688-1731 are held in the UK by Humberside Record Office at Beverly and by the Society of Genealogists in London. Typescript indexes to the two courts separately are available at the Borthwick for 1688-1731; there are no calendars for this period, but the Act Books have been microfilmed (see above). Printed indexes in the YARS series cover the period 1389-1688, and at the Lancashire Record Office there is an index to Lancashire will at York, 1439-1680.rnrnThe Chancery or Consistory Court dealt with any probates required by peculiars whose jurisdiction was temporarily inhibited by the visitation of the Archbishop. Until 1822, when PCY took over, it also dealt with estates of the beneficed clergy. Microfilms of these calendars are also available, but the full series has been printed as YARS vols 73 and 93, and Borthwick Bulletin 1 (i) covering the periods 1427-1658, 1316-1822 and 1823-1857 respectively.

Probates issued by the Dean & Chapter of York have not been included other than for vacancies (see above). This court had jurisdiction over many peculiars throughout the province, as well as over other peculiars when undertaking a visitation of them. Separate calendars exist for the various jurisdictions many of which have been microfilmed and are available at the Society of Genealogists: for details see �Wills and their Whereabouts�, 1974 edition. YARS vol 78 contains indexes of various records of this court to the early 18th century. For people from Dean & Chapter peculiars with PCY probates, see notes above on the individual areas.

Acknowledgements and Secondary Sources

My debt to the various authorities in this field is obviously enormous, but they cannot be blamed for any errors I may have introduced into their various lucid explanations. Acknowledged sources include: AJ Camps�s �Wills and their Whereabouts�, 1974; Jane Cox�s �Guide to the PCC Records�, PRO, 1980; Gardner and Smith�s �Genealogical Research in England & Wales vol II�, Bookcraft Publishers, 1959; Jeremy Gibson�s �Simplified Guide to Probate Jurisdictions�, FFHS/Gulliver, 1980; CC Webb�s �Guide to Genealogical Sources in the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research�, University of York; 1981; Yorkshire Ancient Parishes & Chapelries (map), Yorks Arch Soc, 1973; Johnston & Bacon�s Road Atlas of Gt Britain, 1970; parish/county series of maps, Inst of Her & Gen Studies, Canterbury.

I would also like to thank the various northern record offices, family history societies and fellow enthusiasts for their interest, encouragement and provision of information; and Cecil Humphery-Smith and Stella Colwell, University of London extra-mural lecturers, for insisting that we must add to rather than merely use the available indexed source material. The Society of Genealogists office staff have been unfailingly patient in issuing the same microfilm week after week. Above all, I must thank Christopher Webb from the Borthwick for endless detailed advice, assistance, information, encouragement and patience.