Wills

Thanks ladies that is most helpful .. in other words ..keep on looking and looking and you might be lucky ..
I just wish my ancestors' locations didn't stretch from Scotland to Cornwall and everywhere in between, as well as Ireland and Germany. Julie

[Merry]

Yes Julie, including asking in the same place more than once!

Aah Yes .. the 3 ps .. patience and perseverance and persistence lol Julie

[HarrysMum]

This is a great question Julie. As Merry said above, I was also looking for wills.

I'd like to know if there is a list of where wills could be.....I'm fine with PCC, Lancs, Bristol and Borthwick. Well, when I say 'fine' I mean I know they exist....lol

But some wills are sitting in odd little places I have never heard of.

[Phoenix]

In general, wills should be in the appropriate diocesan office - not always the same as the county record office. Peculiars are so called because they are outside the scope of this. They could be anywhere. Mercifully they usually consist of a single parish or manor.

[Olde Crone]

One of my major triumphs in the last 20 years was finding a Will for a possible relative cosying up in a solicitor's office in Salisbury. My daughter was at that time living in Salisbury so I sent her off to get a copy of this Will. The haughty receptionist told her it would cost ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY POUNDS plus VAT. Apparently this huge price was because they would have to get the Will out of storage. I told them not to bother, but fretted on and off for a few months, I really wanted that Will.

To my astonished delight, the same firm of Solicitors then DONATED the Will to Lancs Archives, who supplied me with a copy for the vast cost of £3.50, lol. I am so glad I did not pay £130 for it because it told me absolutely nothing helpful at all!

OC

I'm wondering if we could have an index of counties and locations where people have found wills? Julie

I have just found this on the Hertfordshire Names Online database - fantastic resource

John Ware 1726 Sarratt husbandman filed will 163AW14
John Ware 1726 Sarratt husbandman regis tered will 11AR493

Should I buy both? - Is there different information in the filed will and the registerd will?

I am hoping that this may confirm that I am following the right man Julie

Phoenix's comment about the above, made me think that this is worth sharing ... Julie

"Australian Town and Country Journal - 2 April 1898"

"Some Peculiar Wills.

Most people are interested in wills directly or indirectly (writes L. S. Lewis, in the "Strand Magazine"). If one has no "expectations" one-self, one has probably often followed some elusive document through three acts of a play or three volumes of a story. Goodness only knows what novelists and dramatists would do without wills.

And everybody is aware that Somerset House is the headquarters of these things; are not the "searchers" one of the sights of the town --a race apart, comparable only to the curious wildfowl met within the British Museum? Thanks to the courtesy of Sir Francis Jeune, the writer was enabled to explore the vast vaults and strong rooms beneath the Probate Registry in which the millions of originals are stored. To these wonderful vaults no one ordinarily has access, but then, the whole world knows that Somerset House is always open to the "Strand." In spite of the ever-present gloom and dust, the spirit of romance pervades the great subterranean chambers we are considering Millions of wills going right down through the ages! The system of arrangement is absolutely perfect. Shakspere's will is as readily produced as that of the lowly Cockney who died the other day.

The oddities and curiosities among this stupendous collection are, as might be supposed, both extensive and peculiar. There is even quite a little museum of more or less romantic objects connected with litigation about wills and these have at one time or another been produced as evidence in court. The courteous Record-keeper, Mr. Rodman, and his assistant Mr. Stevens, do not exactly view these things with boundless enthusiasm, but of the interest attaching to the objects there can be no question.

Just look at the leg of an old-fashioned "four-poster" bedstead in the strong-room or vaults of Somerset House. Briefly, this is the story. The Earl of S- was an eccentric peer, a morose, reserved man, who apparently suspected everybody of sinister motives. He used to hide things. Important deeds and letters, and bank-notes for huge amounts, he bundled into damp cellars, with disastrous results. He would rip open chair-cushions and secrete things there; and, in short, he had treasure of greater or less value in every hole and corner. After Lord S--'s. death, the will and first codicil were readily forthcoming, mainly because they were in safer keeping than his lordship's. The second and most important codicil, however, took no less than three years to find! After the Earl's death the bed on which he slept was unceremoniously pitched into the lumber-room, and it was by the merest accident that a servant at length discovered the long-lost codicil, cunningly tied to the bar of the bedstead leg. The paper was found folded neatly, and resting on the ledge formed by the bar where it meets the bedpost. As his lordship lay in bed, it was his delight to withdraw the will from its hiding-place; (he could do so easily), and either dwell with satisfaction on its contents or else make any slight alterations that pleased him. It was the poor man's only hobby. As the missing codicil contained legacies and bequests to a very large amount, its ultimate production caused a great deal of excitement. And, therefore, in order that the whole romantic story might readily be demonstrated before the Probate Court, a complete model of the entire bed stead was made on the scale of 1in to a foot. . .

Wills are often found in strange places, from weather-cocks to picture-frames, but there is surely but one instance of a will being found in a business day-book. There is a day-book treasured carefully at Somerset House, because a will has been made in it. It is a long narrow book of a well-known kind, and on the outside is written, "Peter Smith, March, 1807. Day-book for the Park." Peter was apparently an overseer, or steward on some big estate. As the Probate people are only concerned with the one folio, the remainder of the leaves are fastened together, so that the book immediately opens at the required place. The entry which is really the will, has been marked "A," and here we read, "Left due to my dear wife, £100 0s 0d." Above is an entry debiting "Mr. Richard Hill" with "3 Beasts at £15 10s 0d." Certainly an unconventional will this.

A punning will is doubly painful, particularly when much of it has reference to the "mode of my burial." A Kentish gentleman who left personal estate worth £10,091 0s 10d, wrote as follows in this connection: "The coffin is to be of red fir. I pine for nothing better. Even this may be thought a deal too good, though certainly not very spruce"-- and so on.

There are in the "Registry" many ancient wills of a highly decorative kind. They contain elaborate drawings and sketches, mainly illustrative of the trade or occupation of the testator. For instance, the initial letter of a certain baker's will takes the form of a sheaf of golden corn. Most of the wills up to comparatively recent times had something distinctive about them. Isaac Walton's is sealed with a curious device, showing the Saviour crucified on an anchor.

Other wills in the great collection contain long sermons; and others, again, abuse of a peculiarly vituperative sort. "I leave," shrieks a barrister, who really ought to have known better, "to Herbert L-- his wife, and Frances Elizabeth, my sister, the happy assurance that their greed, jealousy, folly, plots, schemes, and vile lies have succeeded in making life a burden to me."
"Many times," wailed a Manchester man, who was disinheriting his wife, "she wished I was stiff" --a curious saying, but sufficiently expressive of the lady's weariness of her stricken spouse.

The will next seen came from Egypt, preserved in a bottle of spirit for fear of the plague. The testator was apothecary to his Majesty's forces in Aboukir Bay, and he sent his will in the form of a letter to the surgeon on board the flagship. This is the cheerful way in which the will commenced: --"Aboukir, July l, 1801. My dear -- Being now aflickted with the Plague, the Scourge of Mankind, which will probably soon terminate my existence . . ." etc., etc. On receiving this strange will epistle, the surgeon grew alarmed for his own safety. Fearing that the paper was infected, and dreading to put it with his other papers lest the contagion should spread, he instantly made a copy of it, and then carefully compared that copy with the origin- al. This done, the surgeon placed the original in the bottle of spirit, and brought it home to England with him. When the bottle was opened, no trace of writing could be found on the paper, it having been completely absorbed by the strong spirit. Then of course, the copy had to be produced and proved."

[Merry]

I know there were over 200 different courts through which wills could be proved before 1858. (In Eng/Wales)