Explore the Devon Wills Index and find your ancestors from Devon in South West England. This index includes people who were either born or died in Devon. The collection includes over 295,609 wills, proved across 30 courts. The Devon Wills Index is a finding-aid for the family historian to reveal what probate records are available, if they have survived the Exeter Blitz of World War Two and where they are located.
What can these records tell me?
Each record includes a transcript of the original record. The detail in each transcript can vary, but most will include the following:
- Name of testators (those who made wills) and intestates (those who did not make wills, but whose estates were administered).
- Sex
- Occupation
- Probate year
- Place
- Original place - shows how the place name was originally transcribed
- County
- Additional information
- Court – this field explains in which court the will was proved.
- Source – check your source on the Devon Wills Index Source List below. The table will give you further details about how to locate the original documents.
- Document reference - reference to be used for the host archive
- Document type – this field will explain if the record is available in its original form, as a transcript, a copy or an abstract. However, if the form is listed as ‘List entry’ this means that the will no longer exists and has only been found in a list or index.
- Document form - whether it is an original or copy of the original
- Reference code - reference used within the collection
Devon Wills Index Source List
| Code | Source | Description | Transcriber(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACA | Anthony Camp's Index of Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations 1750-1800 | No overall index is available to PROB 6 (PCC admons), though certain spans of years have been indexed by various different indexers. The source (ACA) is a reformatted version of Index of Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations 1750-1800. This index was compiled by Anthony Camp and a set of volunteers from the old calendars of the Court which are the chief means of reference to the Administration Act Books. The original records are held by the National Archives. | Brian Randell |
| ARCH | The Court of Arches | This was a church court of appeal and the archives, which are still held at the Lambeth Palace Library, are quite extensive. The source is a published volume that lists all the cases heard in the court: Index of cases in the records of the Court of Arches at Lambeth Palace Library, 1660-1930, J. Houston, ed. (British Record Society, Index Library, Vol. 85). An enquiry to the Lambeth Palace Library, giving the name, should enable the librarian there to determine whether such a copy has survived. | Brian Randell |
| BARN-R | Registration Court of the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple | The North Devon Athenaeum holds a 155-page notebook containing a transcript of a 62-page MS Calendar of Wills and Administrations produced (exhibited) in the Registration Court of the Archdeaconry Court of Barnstaple (1573-1586). The actual Calendar cannot presently be traced. Somewhat mysteriously the notebook is listed in the NDA catalogue as Twitchen Parish Registers and Wills - NDA 929.3 TWI D [Wills 1574-1586]. The name of the notebook's author is not given; its transcriber is believed to be Inkerman Rogers. Photocopies of parts of the index may be available from the North Devon Athenaeum. | Lindsey Withers |
| BASK | Moger - Basket A | Moger Basket A is a collection of well over 3500 documents originally deriving from the Principal Registry of the Bishop of Exeter. The original documents were sorted and catalogued (in detail) by Miss Olive Moger in the late 1940s, and are now held at the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter. The catalogue – not the original documents – was kindly photographed for us by Mr Ken Ozanne. For our index we have selected out of Miss Moger’s catalogue of Basket A only items that concern wills and administrations. If you find an item from source BASK which is of interest to you, please contact the Devon Heritage Centre giving all the details you find in our index. | Alan Brooke and Brian Lake |
| BECK | Beckerlegge, J.J. (Ed.) Index of the Wills and Administrations relating to the County of Devon proved in the Court of the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple, 1563-1858 | This is a set of volumes of bound typescripts, the only known copies of which are held at the Devon Heritage Centre, the North Devon Record Office (NDRO), the Westcountry Studies Library (WSL, now part of the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter) and the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office (PWDRO). All the original wills proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Barnstaple were held at Exeter, and thus destroyed in 1942. So the 50000 entries in these five volumes serve only to convey the information that such and such a person did in fact leave a will or administration, now sadly lost. | Pat Gillard, Paul Hockie, Marilyn and Pieter Koops, Pat Norton, Susan Page, John Pitts and Brian Randell |
| BES | Besley, T., The Report of the Commissioners Concerning Charities, containing that part which relates to the County of Devon, (3 vols) (1826-30) | These three volumes provide very detailed accounts of investigations into the origins, and subsequent activities, of numerous Devon charities. In some cases little information is provided in these volumes other than the amount and purpose of a bequest. However they sometimes provide extensive information, naming numerous individuals, concerning the charitable bequests, and also about how these bequests have been disbursed, any ensuing court cases concerning them, etc. Copies of these volumes are held in the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter (now part of the Devon Heritage Centre), the Society of Genealogists, London, and at other major reference libraries. | Brian Randell |
| CA | College of Arms | If you find a will in the Burke Collection that is of interest to you, please contact the College of Arms (Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4BT). A photocopy of the desired abstract should be available for a fee. If you are happy just to know the names of the beneficiaries of a particular Tucker or Mortimer testator, then the Devon Heritage Centre should be able to supply you with this information from the relevant section of their copy of the Burke index (though do make sure you give the court as well as the folio reference). | Patrick Dickinson, Sylvie Matthews and Lindsey Withers |
| CASH | Cash, M., Devon Inventories of the 16th and 17th centuries | Margaret Cash, who edited and provided an introduction to this listing, was Deputy County Archivist of Devon. A Probate Inventory is a list and valuation of the movable goods and chattels of a deceased person. It had to be produced in the Court of Probate before a will could be proved. Margaret Cash's book contains 256 entries, but a good number of other inventories survive among the papers of families and estates and the files of diocesan records, all now held at the Devon Record Office, Exeter. Copies of Devon Inventories of the 16th and 17th Centuries are held at the Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter, the Society of Genealogists, London, and at other major reference libraries. The originals of the inventories printed in this DCRS publication can be found at the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter. Copies may be available on request. | Lindsey Withers |
| CATH | Exeter Cathedral | The Cathedral Archive at Exeter Cathedral - not be confused with the Cathedral Library - holds ancient records relating to the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral and to the Vicars Choral, plus other miscellaneous records concerning the cathedral. Among these records are sundry copies of wills, administrations and inventories, mostly of a fairly early date. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing a document in this list, photographing it or acquiring a photocopy of it by post, you should contact The Cathedral Archives directly. | Richard Grylls |
| CRO | Cornwall RO Catalogue | To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact Cornwall Record Office directly. | Brian Randell |
| DDR1 | Death Duty (Estate Duty) Will and Administration Abstracts (TNA IR 26), for the period 1796-1811 | Despite the destruction of all pre-1858 Devon wills at Exeter in 1942, regarding wills made between 1796 and 1857, it is possible to study an abstract or copy of the original will, this abstract/copy having been made for tax purposes. The Death Duty Registers (IR 26) in The National Archives (TNA) hold details of wills and bequests for estates liable to death duties. They cover separately wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) and the Country Courts (i.e. courts other than the PCC). The period is divided into two parts, 1796-1811 and 1812-1857. Copies should be available online at the The National Archives website. BUT, be aware that there are four different online wills indexes at TNA. Having selected ‘Our Online Records’, and then ‘Wills and probate’, click on ‘Country court death duty registers 1796-1811’. | Brian Randell |
| DDR2 | Death Duty (Estate Duty) Administration Abstracts (TNA IR 26), for the period 1812-1857 | For those people who wish to examine the original records at The National Archives, it should be noted that the series of documents is in IR 26, and that each year's worth of records has been divided into 'pieces' - the piece number appearing after IR 26/ in the reference. The f. (folio) number refers to the HAND-WRITTEN number usually recorded in the left hand top corner of a double spread, but sometimes in the top right hand corner of a double spread. Each double page spread also includes a stamped (printed) number which was added at a later date. For various reasons - including the fact that the IR 27 indexes use them - the original hand-written numbers have been preferred, and are used here. To add to the confusion, a few of the later ledgers (1850s) show no hand-written folio number at all, just one or two printed ones. In this case the printed number at the top of the left-hand page is the relevant one. | Brian Arthur, Alan Brooke, Jane Cook, Richard Grylls, Carole Harrison, Brian Lake and Lindsey Withers |
| DHC-A | Devon Heritage Centre - Wills found via A2A | This source provides information concerning wills, administrations and inventories held at the Devon Heritage Centre (DHC), found via The National Archives' Access to Archives (A2A) union catalogue. A number of the items listed concern post-1857 wills, and not all relate to Devon, but all have been included here for the sake of completeness. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre directly. However it is worth first checking any original A2A catalogue entry of interest, since some entries contain details from or abstracts of the will concerned. | Brian Randell and Lindsey Withers |
| DHC-C | Devon Heritage Centre - Online Catalogue | This source provides information concerning wills, administrations and inventories held at the Devon Heritage Centre, found via the online catalogue that they share with the North Devon Record Office). A number of the items listed concern post-1857 wills, or photocopies of PCC wills, and not all relate to Devon, but all have been included here for the sake of completeness. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre directly. However it is worth first checking the DHC section of the online catalogue entries corresponding to any items of interest to see if they contain further information about the wills, etc., concerned, since some provide extensive abstracts. | Brian Randell |
| DHC-I | Inventories at the Devon Heritage Centre (DHC). | Inventories were compiled to enable a grant of probate to be made or to stand alongside a request for a grant of administration. In general such inventories listed the movable goods of a deceased person, and not real property (land and houses). Inventories were often disputed, and a large proportion of the 600+ inventories held at the Devon Heritage Centre are copies made for use as evidence in a legal case. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre directly. | Lindsey Withers |
| DHC-U | Uncatalogued Collections (DHC) (incomplete) | This source provides information concerning wills, administrations and inventories held at the Devon Heritage Centre (DHC), in collections whose detailed contents have not yet been entered into any available DHC catalogue. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre directly. | Richard Grylls, Liz Holliday and Kim Tomlinson |
| DHC-W | Wills Card Index (DHC). | This source is a transcript of the Wills Card Index held at the Devon Heritage Centre (DHC), at Exeter. The Devon Heritage Centre website indicates: "This index lists only the name and date and sometimes the parish of residence of the person for whom the will exists. It also indexes wills found in the Exeter City Archives collection held at this office - including Mayor's Court and Orphans' Court wills." To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre directly. | Richard Grylls, Diana Stevens and Lindsey Withers |
| DRAKE | Drake Genealogy (2 vols.) MSS [SOG] | Two manuscript volumes of Drake Genealogy were donated to the Society of Genealogists (SOG) in 1948 by "F. Gunther". The compiler of the two volumes - though this is not readily apparent within the two volumes themselves - was in fact Dr. Henry Holman Drake (1820 Nova Scotia - 1905 Islington), M.A., LL.D, a school master by profession (mostly in St Austell). The two volumes at the Society of Genealogists contain a huge amount of information gathered about people surnamed Drake, mostly in Devon and Cornwall, and about the families those Drakes married into. Both volumes contain abstracts of wills, and both also contain lists of wills, gleaned from will calendars in Devon. If you find in this source an abstract of interest to you, please apply to the Society of Genealogists who will be able to inform you of fees for copying extracts. | Richard Grylls |
| DWAAC | Devon Wills and Administrations: Additions and Corrections 1595-1799 | The 'additions' and 'corrections' listed in this DWAAC source are taken from two unique documents, entitled Bishop of Exeter: addenda 1579-1603 and Archdeaconry of Exeter: errors and omissions 1595-1799. Photocopies of the original DWAAC lists may be viewed at the Society of Genealogists, London (DE G/75), and the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter (now part of the Devon Heritage Centre), and possibly elsewhere. None of the original wills they refer to have survived. | Jane Cook |
| FOTH | Devon Names in the Fothergill Collection | This collection of abstracts of wills and administrations relating to Devon, Cornwall and Somerset people, was compiled by Cliff Webb and typed up by Rachel Taylor. The original abstracts were made probably in the early 1900s by Gerald Fothergill (1870-1926), an eminent genealogist and historian who lived in London. There are bound copies of the Fothergill Abstracts at the Society of Genealogists, the Guildhall Library, both in London, and at the Devon and Cornwall Record Society Library in the Westcountry Studies Library (WSL) at Exeter (now part of the Devon Heritage Centre). Any of these institutions should be able to provide copies for a fee. | Richard Grylls |
| FRYA | Fry, E.A. (ed.) Calendar of Wills and Administrations relating to the counties of Devon and Cornwall, proved in the court of the Principal Registry of the Bishop of Exeter, 1559-1799, and of Devon only, proved in the Court of the Archdeaconry of Exeter, 1540-1799. British Record Society Index Library Vol 35 (1908) | The FRYA Calendar, together with the FRYB 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 FRYA Calendar (BRS Vol. 35) 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 |
| 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 |
| FTNAA | Devon PCC Admons 1700-49 | The original ledgers of PROB 6 and 12 may of course be examined at The National Archives. Neither set of documents is viewable online as yet. Having noted carefully the year and month of the administration it should be possible to locate it. If you are unable to visit TNA, they may be able to provide (for a fee) a copy of a specific administration, as long as you give them a detailed and precise reference. | Provided by the Friends of The National Archives |
| FURG | Fursdon, C.A.T., Genealogical contents of Devon and Cornish wills and inventories [ca.1558-1810] - Vol. I | C.A.T. Fursdon was a Devon-based genealogist. Back in the late 1920s he happened upon a goodly clutch of documents hidden away in one of the towers of Exeter Cathedral. He transcribed/abstracted these and typed them up in 1931. His work was later bound into two volumes, each with some 600 entries. It is thought that the original documents (from which he transcribed/abstracted the information) perished in the Blitz. The two volumes (which we have called FURG and FURW in our source list) are to be found in the Library of The Devon and Cornwall Record Society, which is located on the open shelves at The Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter. There is a third Fursdon volume there, but this is merely an index of the other two volumes. Researchers wishing to acquire a copy of an item listed in FURG should contact the Devon Heritage Centre. | Jo Dyer and Richard Grylls |
| FURW | Fursdon, C.A.T., Genealogical contents of Devon and Cornish wills and inventories [ca.1558-1810] - Vol. II | C.A.T. Fursdon was a Devon-based genealogist. Back in the late 1920s he happened upon a goodly clutch of documents hidden away in one of the towers of Exeter Cathedral. He transcribed/abstracted these and typed them up in 1931. His work was later bound into two volumes, each with some 600 entries. It is thought that the original documents (from which he transcribed/abstracted the information) perished in the Blitz. The two volumes (which we have called FURG and FURW in our source list) are to be found in the Library of The Devon and Cornwall Record Society, which is now located on the open shelves at the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter. There is a third Fursdon volume there, but this is merely an index of the other two volumes. Researchers wishing to acquire a copy of an item listed in FURW should contact the Devon Heritage Centre. | Kerrie Johnson and Lindsey Withers |
| GD | Devon section of GENUKI | The GD source comprises all the transcripts and abstracts of Devon wills and administrations that are in GENUKI/Devon (as of September 2013). To access these transcripts and abstracts use GENUKI/Devon's Listing of Towns and Parishes to find the appropriate town or parish page (as identified in the 'Place' column - or, where the 'Place' column names somewhere outside Devon - the 'Reference' column), and then look under the heading Probate Records. (Note that Devon parish names found here are as given in the transcript or abstract, and can differ from those used in GENUKI - in such cases the standard version of the parish name that GENUKI uses will be found within square brackets in the 'Place' column.) Copies may be freely downloaded from the GENUKI/Devon website. | Brian Randell |
| GLEN | Extracts from Glencross, R. M., Calendar of Wills, Administrations and Accounts Relating to the Counties of Cornwall and Devon in the Connotorial Archdiaconal Court of Cornwall (1569-1699) | For reasons that seem not to have been recorded, all the wills and administrations that were proved or granted at Bodmin before the year 1600 were lost or destroyed a very long time ago. However, when R. M. Glencross compiled his calendar of wills proved up to 1699, he was able to consult lists that showed pre-1600 wills. Copies of Glencross’s index are held by the Society of Genealogists, the LDS Family History Library, and a number of major reference libraries and various record offices. There are of course no original wills/administrations surviving of which copies could be made. | Richard Grylls |
| IRW | DHC copies of Inland Revenue Wills retained by the Estate Duty Office (1812-1857) | Most of the copy wills from 1812 to 1857 were intentionally destroyed by The National Archives some years ago, those for Cornwall, Devon and Somerset (from the major local probate courts in those counties) were preserved and sent to the respective county record offices, to fill some of the gaps caused by the loss through enemy action of locally held wills from those counties. The collection in the Devon Heritage Centre is known as the Inland Revenue Wills Series or the Estate Duty Office Wills. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter directly. | Brian Randell |
| IZAC | Izacke, Richard, An alphabetical register of divers persons, who by their last wills & grants have given towards the relief of the poor of the county of Devon | Copies of Isacke’s book An Alphabetical Register of Divers Persons, Who by Their Last Wills & Grants have given towards the Relief of the Poor of the County of Devonand City and County of Exon... are held by the Westcountry Studies Library (WSL, now part of the Devon Heritage Centre), the British Library, the LDS Family History Library, and online in Google Books. Copies of items in it can no doubt be obtained from these institutions. | Brian Randell |
| JHA | Devon Names in the Calendars of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations (1581-1660), by Jean Harris | Our set of JHA items has been created from the listings of Devon-related Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations, prepared by Jean Harris for GENUKI/Devon. Copies of most if not all of the volumes listed above should in fact be available in the reference section of any large library of a major city. However, if you wish to obtain a copy of the original administration, please contact The National Archives. It would almost certainly reduce the time the staff there have to spend locating a specific admon if you quoted both the PROB 6/xx reference, and the folio number shown in the GENUKI/Devon Adminstration pages mentioned above. The PROB 6/xx reference can be found from the TNA catalogue PROB 6 listing. | Brian Randell |
| JHW | Devon Names in the Calendars of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills (1383-1700), by Jean Harris | This index is created from the listings in GENUKI of Devon-related Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills (containing over eleven thousand entries in total), prepared by Jean Harris, mainly from British Record Society and Index Library volumes based on PCC Wills calendars, and from Probate Act Books (referred to using P.A.B.). These listings cover wills by testators who were Devon residents at the time of making the will, or who would seem through the information given about them or their wills to have some link to Devon. Quoting from Jean Harris’s Explanatory Note: "The British Record Society and Index Library volumes should be available in the reference section of any large library of a major city; they can also be seen on microfilms from the Church of the Latter Day Saints, who have also filmed all of the PCC registers for the years that this court existed. Thus, with the year plus the folio number, the relevant microfilm can be ordered into a local Family History Centre. | Brian Randell |
| LEP | Lepine, David and Nicholas Orme, (Eds.), Death and Memory in Medieval Exeter (Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 2003) | The book Death and Memory in Medieval Exeter (Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 2003), by David Lepine and Nicholas Orme, (Eds.) contains extensive information about Exeter burials and wills. We provide, in the 'Reference' column, all the cataloguing information given in the book for the various wills and inventories; and we indicate in the Form column whether a given item is a transcript or an extract, or merely a list entry. There is no further information in the book about items that are characterised as list entries - however for such wills the 'Reference' column should suffice to enable the will to be located in the relevant archive. Copies of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society's publications are held by major reference and genealogical libraries, and can be consulted in order to access the transcripts and brief will extracts that this book provides for some of the wills that it records. | Brian Randell |
| MALL | Mallock of Cockington Collection (DRO) | The original documents are all held at the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the source listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter directly. | Brian Randell |
| MANN | Mann, J.H., Mann Family History (SOG, BL and DCRS) | During the early part of the twentieth century John Henry Mann assembled into some 40+ volumes all the information he had collected about anyone named Mann (plus spelling variants) in a countrywide - in fact worldwide - search. Among the 40+ volumes are two that are relevant to the Devon Wills Project. One is entitled Devonshire Wills and Administrations, 1532-1857. Reseachers wishing to obtain a copy of a will abstract from the Mann collection should contact either the Society of Genealogists or, for the Devon and Cornwall Record Society volumes, the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter. | Richard Grylls |
| MED | Medlycott and Hawkings, Index to the Lost Probate Records of the Diocese of Exeter | Most of the will copies listed in the MED source may be viewed at the Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London, EC1M 7BA, (contact details) and photocopies may be obtained for a fee. Items found in collections other than SOG's may be viewed in the relevant repository, which is indicated in the 'Reference' column. References starting with 'SRO - ' refer to items now held at the Somerset Heritage Centre, formerly called the Somerset Record Office. Among our MED items the source of several will abstracts is shown as the Revd. Frederick Brown Collection at the Somerset Record Office. The numbers given refer specifically and only to that collection. However, the Revd. Brown's abstracts were edited and printed in six volumes by F.A. Crisp. There are copies of these volumes at SRO itself and SOG, and no doubt sundry other major libraries. Devon wills to be found in this Crisp edition of Brown's abstracts are shown in our index, the source being given as MISC/Crisp. | Ann Roberts |
| MISC | Wills, Administrations and Inventories in Miscellaneous Sources | Miscellaneous Sources | Christine Abram, Peter Cowell, Liz & Peter Davidson, Jo Dyer, Bev Edmonds, Richard Grylls, Jean Harris, Stephen Hobbs, Graham King, Richard Lawton, Pauline Lyons, Justin H. Martin, Daniel Morgan, Brian Randell, Sarah Reed, John Ritchings, Ann Roberts, Fay Sampson, Jen Walton and Gerald Wyatt |
| MOGA | Moger, Olive M., Transcript of Devonshire wills, 1600-1800, Ms. | Miss Olive Mary Moger (1880-1961) was an indefatigable genealogist and family history researcher. In the course of her career she abstracted (or transcribed verbatim) some 6,600 wills, and listed (without abstracts) a further 5,000. Most of the wills that she abstracted had been proved in Devon. At some time after 1942 all her will abstracts were typed up and carbon copies were made. Two sets of her entire collection were then bound into a number of volumes. These sets - 22 volumes each - can be viewed at the Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter. | Nigel Bond, Lesley Crocombe, Pauline Ferris, Liz Holliday, Lynne Moses, Pearl Savage, and Madeleine Robertson Squire |
| MOGC | Moger, Olive M., Cornish Wills Proved In Exeter | Miss Moger's Abstracts of Testamentary Causes, held at the Devon Heritage Centre (DHC), Exeter, are notes about court cases that arose concerning either the making or wording of a will, or the accuracy of an inventory, or the way in which the will had or had not been executed by the executor, etc. The original case papers, from which Miss Moger made her abstracts, do in general survive, though in very frail condition. They often show more detail still. The volumes of abstracts held at the Devon Heritage Centre consist of photocopies of Miss Moger's hand-written notes. If you find a MOGT item relating to a testamentary cause which interests you, you will need to contact the Devon Heritage Centre in order to obtain further information about this cause. The abstracts of testamentary causes are held in two series of bound volumes, twenty-seven in total, each containing about two hundred handwritten pages. These volumes are not numbered, but each volume is marked either 'Series 1' or 'Series 2' followed by the range of page numbers contained in it. So, a given testamentary cause can be located from the the series number and its page number, as given in our index. With this information, DHC staff should be able to supply you with a photocopy of the relevant abstract | Lindsey Withers |
| MOGT | Moger, Olive M., Abstracts of Testamentary Causes | Miss Moger's Abstracts of Testamentary Causes, held at the Devon Heritage Centre (DHC), Exeter, are notes about court cases that arose concerning either the making or wording of a will, or the accuracy of an inventory, or the way in which the will had or had not been executed by the executor, etc. The volumes of abstracts held at the Devon Heritage Centre consist of photocopies of Miss Moger's hand-written notes. Her original notes do not seem to have survived. A few pages in the original notes appear to have been accidentally omitted when the photocopies were made. If you find a MOGT item relating to a testamentary cause which interests you, you will need to contact the Devon Heritage Centre in order to obtain further information about this cause. | Alan Brooke, Jane Cook, Malcolm Diggines, Anne Hawkins, Marjorie King, Brian Lake, Ann Roberts and Lindsey Withers |
| MUR1 | Murray, Oswyn (comp.) Oswyn Murray collection of wills, abt. 1600-1800 | Before the wartime destruction of the Exeter Probate Registry Sir Oswyn Murray had made abstracts of a number of wills for families in which he had an interest. The abstracts are in a number of volumes in the Westcountry Studies Library - now part of the Devon Heritage Centre. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter directly. | Brian Arthur, Alan Brooke, Jane Cook, Lesley Crocombe, Pauline Ferris, Carole Harrison, Brian Lake, Richard Lawton, Sylvie Matthews, Ann Roberts, Diana Stevens and Lindsey Withers |
| MUR2 | Murray, Oswyn (comp.) Oswyn Murray will abstracts (Westcountry Studies Library) | To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter directly. | Nigel Bond, Alan Brooke, Malcolm Diggines, Brian Lake, Ann Roberts and Lindsey Withers |
| NAVY | Registers of Seamen's Wills | Because a large percentage of the original wills have not survived, it is probably better to look for a seaman's will in the ADM 142 ledgers, which are much more complete. It is certainly cheaper to do so, given that the ledgers can be downloaded for free from The National Archives. Those original wills that have survived in ADM 48 are also downloadable from The National Archives, the present cost being £3.50 per will. | Lindsey Withers |
| NDA | North Devon Athenaeum | Our set of NDA source items provides information concerning wills, administrations and inventories held in the North Devon Athenaeum, many found via use of a preliminary version of their new online catalogue, courtesy of the North Devon Athenaeum Librarian. The North Devon Athenaeum is co-located with the North Devon Library and Record Office in Barnstaple. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the source listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the North Devon Athenaeum directly. | Stephen Hobbs and Brian Randell |
| NDRO-A | North Devon Record Office - wills found via A2A | Our NDRO-A source items provide information concerning wills, administrations and inventories held at the North Devon Record Office, found via The National Archives' Access to Archives (A2A) union catalogue. A number of the items concern post-1857 wills, and not all relate to Devon, but all have been included in DWP for the sake of completeness. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the source listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the North Devon Record Office directly. | Brian Randell and Lindsey Withers |
| NDRO-C | North Devon Record Office Online Catalogue | The NDRO-C source items provide information concerning wills, administrations and inventories held at the North Devon Record Office, found via the online catalogue that they share with the Devon Heritage Centre. A number of the items concern post-1857 wills, or photocopies of PCC wills, and not all relate to Devon, but all have been included in DWP for the sake of completeness. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the source listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the North Devon Record Office directly. However it is worth first checking the NDRO section of theonline catalogue entries corresponding to any items of interest to see if they contain further information about the wills, etc., concerned, since some provide extensive abstracts. | Brian Randell |
| PECU1 | A calendar of wills proved in the Peculiar Court of the Vicars Choral at Exeter (SOG) | Our PECU1 source items provide a listing of wills and administrations proved or granted at the Peculiar Court of the Vicars Choral of Exeter, from the 1630s to 1857. The original wills do not survive, so there are none to copy. The Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, London EC1M 7BA (email: genealogy@sog.org.uk) would no doubt (for a fee) provide copies of pages from the index. | Richard Grylls |
| PECU2 | A calendar of wills proved in the Peculiar Court of the Dean of Exeter (SOG) | The PECU2 source is a list of wills and administrations proved or granted at the Peculiar Court of the Dean of Exeter, from the 1630s to 1857. The list is held at the Society of Genealogists, bound together with PECU1. It is a photocopy. The whereabouts of the original list (from which this copy was taken) have not been determined as yet. All the original probate copies of wills proved in this court were destroyed in 1942. This PECU-2 list therefore presents (with a few exceptions, where copies, transcripts or abstracts of wills have been located) the only surviving evidence that well over a thousand Devon individuals did in fact leave wills or had their estates administered. The original wills do not survive, so there are none to copy. The Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, London EC1M 7BA (email: genealogy@sog.org.uk) would no doubt (for a fee) provide copies of pages from the index. | Richard Grylls |
| PROB 11 | Wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (TNA) | The PROB 11 source items represent the collection at The National Archives (TNA) of the court copies of proved PCC wills, and covers the period 1387-1858. Digital images of all the PROB 11 wills are now available for downloading - see The National Archives' Wills Search Facility. | Brian Randell |
| PWDRO-A | Plymouth and West Devon Record Office - wills found via A2A | The PWDRO-A source items provide information concerning wills, administrations and inventories, held at the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office (PWDRO), found via The National Archives' Access to Archives (A2A) union catalogue. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the source listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office directly. | Brian Randell |
| PWDRO-C | Plymouth and West Devon Record Office Online Catalogue | The PWDRO-C source items provide information concerning wills, administrations and inventories held at the Plymouth & West Devon Record Office (PWDRO), found via their online catalogue. A number of the items listed concern post-1857 wills, and not all relate to Devon, but all have been included here for the sake of completeness. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the source listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office directly. However it is worth first checking the online catalogue entries corresponding to any items of interest to see if they contain further information about the wills, etc., concerned, since some provide extensive abstracts. | Brian Randell |
| PWDRO-W | Plymouth and West Devon Record Office wills card index | The PWDRO-W source items are derived from a listing provided by the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office (PWDRO). This listing was produced in about 1999 of a card index that they used to keep for their wills collection. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the source listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office directly. | Brian Randell |
| SHC | Somerset Heritage Centre Online Catalogue | The set of SHC source items contain information extracted from the online catalogue of the Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton, (previously known as the Somerset Record Office), concerning pre-1858 Devon-related wills among their holdings (as of 24 Aug 2010), and from the Access to Archives (A2A) coverage of their holdings. The year given is that in which a will was proved, where this information is available - otherwise it is the year in which the will was written. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed here, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Somerset Heritage Centre directly. Copies of the publications and printed indexes listed above can be found at the Somerset Heritage Centre, the Society of Genealogists and at various other major libraries. Siraut in particular should if possible be consulted rather than the SHC's original copies of the abstracts that it contains, since these originals are rather fragile. | Brian Randell |
| SOG | Society of Genealogists | A considerable number of copies or abstracts of Devon Wills are held in the library of the Society of Genealogists (SOG), which is located at 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA. For further information about any will or administration found as an SOG source item in the DWP index, please contact the Society of Genealogists. 14 Charterhouse Buildings, London EC1M 7BA by mail or email, but do please be aware of the uncertainties mentioned above relating to all items marked 'le' in our index. | Richard Grylls |
| TAPS | The Tapley-Soper collection of Inquisitions Post Mortem (Westcountry Studies Library) | This collection consists of a set of sixteen volumes of typescript abstracts of 13th to 17th century Inquisitions Post Mortem, originally held at the Westcountry Studies Library, Exeter (WSL) - now part of the Devon Heritage Centre - made by H. Tapley-Soper (1876-1951), City Librarian of Exeter for almost 40 years. The original Inquisitions Post Mortem are held at The National Archives. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Westcountry Studies Library, now incorporated into the Devon Heritage Centre). | Jane Cook, John Gunton, Lindsey Withers |
| TNA | Miscellaneous Record Classes at The National Archives | The reference details given here for each item can be used to check The National Archives catalogue - which in some cases provides much more detail about the particular will, etc. - and via which one can find how to view or request a copy. | Brian Randell |
| UFWI | The Uffculme Wills & Inventories (DCRS Vol. 40, 1997) | Though in Devon, Uffculme was a Peculiar Parish in the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Salisbury, and its probate records were held in Salisbury, rather than Exeter, and so escaped destruction during World War II. The book The Uffculme Wills and Inventories includes a number of illustrations, showing some of the original inventories, wills and administrations which are transcribed in the text. Devon & Cornwall Record Society publications are held in major reference libraries. Those libraries will no doubt provide photocopies as requested. | Mary Fraser |
| UPP | Uffculme: a Peculiar Parish (Uffculme Archive Group, 1997) | In 1997 the Uffculme Archive Group published a book entitled Uffculme, a Peculiar Parish, the source for our set of UPP source items. Copies of PCC wills can of course be obtained online from The National Archives. However the administrations and inventories are not available online (as yet). To obtain copies of these contact The National Archives or the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office, as appropriate. The book Uffculme, a Peculiar Parish is available in various reference libraries around the U.K. and abroad. It is no longer in print. | Mary Fraser |
| VIV | Vivian, Col. J.L., Abstracts of 16th-18th cent. Wills, etc., chiefly relating to Devon and Cornwall | This is a series of eight bound manuscript volumes of detailed abstracts of wills and administrations, perhaps five thousand items in all. They were compiled by Col. J.L. Vivian and after his death presented to the British Library (British Library Add. 34,546-34,552, 34,810). The majority of his abstracts are of Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills, but a significant number are of now-lost Exeter, Barnstaple and Totnes wills. As far as is known, no copies of these volumes exist other than in the British Library. To obtain information about the possibility of viewing a document in this list or acquiring a photocopy of it by post, you should contact The British Library directly. | Teresa Grafton, Richard Grylls and Brian Randell |
| WOR | Worthy, C., Devonshire Wills, London: Bemrose, 1896. | Worthy, Charles. Devonshire wills: a collection of annotated testamentary abstracts, together with the family history and genealogy of many of the most ancient gentle houses of the west of England London : Bemrose & sons (1896). Copies of the book are held at the Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter, the Society of Genealogists, London, and at other major reference libraries. | Lindsey Withers |
| WSA | Wiltshire and Swindon Archives | To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives directly. | Brian Randell |
| WWW | Will transcripts and abstracts discovered in the WWW, mainly in personal web pages | Our set of WWW source items contains entries obtained from searches of the World Wide Web, looking (mainly in personal web pages) for transcripts and abstracts of Devon-related wills and administrations. | Brian Randell, Gerald Wyatt |