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Archiver > LANCSGEN > 2005-01 > 1106226947


From: Phil Stringer <>
Subject: Re: [LAN] Lancashire Wills
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:15:47 +0000 (GMT)
In-Reply-To: <41EF933C.4060008@xtra.co.nz> from "Mike Watkins" at Jan 21, 2005 12:17:16 AM


>
> I am confused ! (nothing new about that, I'm easily confused).
>
> Wills probated in the Arch-Diocese of Canterbury are available on-line
> through the National Archives site, and I've had some fun tracking down
> my southerner ancestors, but, according to Phil Stringer's excellent
> guide on GENUKI, wills for Lancashire are divided up between several
> diocesan offices, and are not on-line.
>
> Were wills handled differently in the Arch-Diocese of York, or is there
> a master set in York still to be brought on-line ?

Each ecclesiastical court in the country has it's own set of records. It was
only after 1858 that they were handled together in effect as a single set.
Pre 1858 you need to know in which court a will was proved to know where to
find it. That partly depends on what was in the will. So if you lived in the
area cover by the Archdeaconery of Richmond (Lancs north of the Ribble
except for the manorial peculiar of Halton) then that is the court in which
it will have been proved, and the records are now at Preston. But if you
for example also had property in another area in the north of England. i.e.
areas covered by two ecclesiastical courts then it would ned to be proved at
the court of the Arch-Diocese of York which was superior to both.

But if you also had property in a southern diocese it would need to be
proved in the court of the Arch-Diocese of Canterbury because Canterbury is
more important than York.

As you can see it was quite complicated and there is no central repository
of pre-1858 wills, they can be in a variety of places.

>
> Mike, in NZ
>
>
>
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phil
--
Phil Stringer, Enterprise Systems, Phone +44 161 275 6057
Manchester Computing Fax +44 161 275 6040
University of Manchester email
UK Genealogy - http://www.genuki.org.uk/

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