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  #11  
Old 14-10-20, 10:55
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Quote:
(If I can buy direct from them, rather than through Amazon, I'd prefer it!)
Excellent!
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"Something has been filled in that I didn't know was blank" Matthew Broderick WDYTYA? March 2010
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  #12  
Old 14-10-20, 11:41
Pinefamily Pinefamily is offline
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Congratulations, Phoenix. I agree that wills are probably the most helpful in these earlier times.
It's a pity we don't have wills for those Smyth's in Great Torrington.
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  #13  
Old 14-10-20, 13:22
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Hi Pinefamily
It's a bummer that Devon wills went up in smoke in WW2, but there is a book listing lots of Smyth wills in abstracts:

Somerset Wills extracted by A.J. Monday and edited by Mary Siraut at The Family History Library, Salt Lake City. Part of the Somerset Record Society Series Call Number British 942.38 B4s Volume 89

The National Archives in England has a copy. I daresay you could either obtain a second hand copy or (when we can access such things) Australian research libraries may have copies.
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  #14  
Old 14-10-20, 13:25
ElizabethHerts ElizabethHerts is offline
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Phoenix, I've always wondered - are there any abstracts of Devon wills, and, if so, where?

My ancestors from Gerrans in the beautiful Roseland Peninsula had a couple of wills proved at Exeter.
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  #15  
Old 14-10-20, 13:32
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There are a surprising number of survivals, even though probably 95% or more are lost.

They are in a huge variety of places and a wonderful group of volunteers have sought out as many references as they can. Find my Past lists them (but a Genuki update has meant that locating the miscellaneous sources is much more tortuous)
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  #16  
Old 14-10-20, 13:34
ElizabethHerts ElizabethHerts is offline
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I think my Quintrell ancestor listed in 1614 only had an inventory.

First name(s) George
Last name Quintrell
Sex Male
Probate year 1614
Place Gerrans
Original place Gerrans
County Cornwall
Country England
Court (Episcopal) Consistory Court of (The Bishop Of) Exeter
Source (see list) FRYB
Document type Inventory
Document form List Entry
Document references 228 Inv.
Record set Devon Wills Index, 1163-1999

After that they didn't seem to be affluent enough to leave wills until they left Gerrans and moved elsewhere.
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  #17  
Old 14-10-20, 13:36
ElizabethHerts ElizabethHerts is offline
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FRYB Fry, E.A. (ed.) Calendar of Wills and Administrations relating to the counties of Devon and Cornwall, proved in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Exeter, 1532-1800. British Record Society Index Library Vol 46 (1914) The FRYB Calendar, together with the FRYA and BECK Calendars, having been compiled before World War 2, provide the only overall record of the Exeter and Barnstaple wills that were lost through the destruction of the Exeter Probate Registry in 1942. There are of course no original wills or administrations to make copies of. However, copies of the FRYB Calendar (BRS Vol. 46) are held by a number of major reference libraries and various record offices. The volume is available on the National Wills Index as part of the British Record Society Probate Collection. Provided by Ian Galbraith, of the National Wills Index, and edited by Richard Grylls and Brian Randell
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  #18  
Old 14-10-20, 13:47
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*sighs* I have been excited several times until I realised the wills were merely listed in Fry.
It's worse to know that there were wills, and had my grandfather been interested he might have looked at them. (Though remembering the hoops I had to go through to look at original records in the past, I cannot imagine that many "ordinary" people would have dared to order up old documents)
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  #19  
Old 15-10-20, 14:26
Pinefamily Pinefamily is offline
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An amateur genealogist called Moses Taylor Pyne had access to the wills around the beginning of the 20th century for Pyne/Pine research. He turned this research into several books. This all sounds very promising for any Pyne/Pine researcher, such as myself, until you discover he cherrypicked which wills he copied information from.
Double sigh, Phoenix.
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  #20  
Old 02-11-20, 18:22
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Book arrived today!

It is wonderful, with huge amount of detail. Although it is great for my personal family, it also throws fascinating lights on Stuart society.

Thank you so much, Merry. Iwould never have dreamed of finding out so much more.
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