Find your ancestors in Prerogative Court of Canterbury

The publications in this collection included:

Locating the original documents

Where are the originals held?

The original wills and administrations are now held at The National Archives (TNA), Kew, London. To obtain copies of an administration you need to get a quotation for the copying work involved. Full details on this and a link to an order form can be found on the National Archives website.

What information from the document do I need to locate the original?

  • Testator's name
  • Place
  • Year of admon
  • Full references as given in this index

About the index

The Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) was the senior and most important of the pre 1858 ecclesiastical courts claiming over-riding jurisdiction over the whole of England and Wales. Wills of those dying overseas were also usually proved in the PPC.

What does the index include?

These index records are essentially abstracts of the administration document. Administration bonds (the usual type of administration document) generally use standardised text (Latin in the earlier admons) and the principal pieces of information they contain, apart from the name and abode (and sometimes the occupation) of the deceased are the names of the administrators, with their relationship to the deceased. So admons - and good indexes to admons - can be very useful in establishing relationships.

All names and places appearing in the administration plus incidental information such as occupation where found in the original documents are included in the index.

Names are arranged alphabetically. This means some name variants may not appear clustered together. Names in the index are according to the spelling used in the documents.

Dates of admons in the indexes published by the BRS are recorded by the civil year. Thus an administration dated Feb. 1582/3 is entered as 1583.

Notes and Abbreviations used in the index

The use of square brackets indicates information derived from the Probate Act Books.

  • Round brackets (parentheses) indicate glosses added by the Editors, or further information derived from the body of the Will, or from the MS Calendars, or any sources other than the Probate Act Books.
  • References marked by an asterisk * are of Wills which are given in the Registers but are omitted from the MS Calendars, or which through clerical errors have been calendared under names so different as to be useless for purposes of reference, such as Prettejohn calendared as "Bettejohn".

    • Matthews PCC Probate Indexes 1630-1655 (Matthews vols. 1-9)

    Matthews Volumes 1-9

    Published 1902

    Read the Original Introduction to Matthews Volumes 1-9.

    Locating the original documents

    Where are the originals held?

    The original wills and administrations are now held at The National Archives (TNA), Kew, London. To obtain copies of an administration you need to get a quotation for the copying work involved. Full details on this and a link to an order form can be found on the National Archives website.

    What information from the document do I need to locate the original?

    • Testator's name
    • Place
    • Year of admon
    • Full references as given in this index

    About the index

    These volumes index the Probate Indexes 1630-1655 registered in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC).

    The Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) was the senior and most important of the pre 1858 ecclesiastical courts claiming over-riding jurisdiction over the whole of England and Wales. Wills of those dying overseas were also usually proved in the PPC. ,/p>

    Matthews indexes comprise:

    • PCC Year Books of Probates Vol. 1, 1630-1634 (Matthews volume 1)
    • PCC Year Books of Probates Vol. 2, 1635-1639 (Matthews volume 2)
    • PCC Year Books of Probates Vol. 3, 1640-1644 (Matthews volume 3)
    • PCC Year Books of Probates Vol. 4, 1645-1649 (Matthews volume 4)
    • Commonwealth Probates Vol. 1, 1650-1651 (Matthews volume 5)
    • Commonwealth Probates Vol. 2, 1652-1653 (Matthews volume 6)
    • Commonwealth Probates Vol. 3, 1654-1655 (Matthews volume 7)
    • Commonwealth Probates Vol. 4, from 1655 (Matthews volume 8)
    • Sentences (1630-1639) (Matthews volume 9)

    What does the index include?

    These index records are essentially abstracts of the administration document. Administration bonds (the usual type of administration document) generally use standardised text (Latin in the earlier admons) and the principal pieces of information they contain, apart from the name and abode (and sometimes the occupation) of the deceased are the names of the administrators, with their relationship to the deceased. So admons - and good indexes to admons - can be very useful in establishing relationships.

    All names and places appearing in the administration plus incidental information such as occupation where found in the original documents are included in the index.

    Names are arranged alphabetically. This means some name variants may not appear clustered together. Names in the index are according to the spelling used in the documents.

    Dates of admons in the indexes published by the BRS are recorded by the civil year. Thus an administration dated Feb. 1582/3 is entered as 1583.

    Notes and Abbreviations used in the index

    The use of square brackets indicates information derived from the Probate Act Books.

  • Round brackets (parentheses) indicate glosses added by the Editors, or further information derived from the body of the Will, or from the MS Calendars, or any sources other than the Probate Act Books.
  • References marked by an asterisk * are of Wills which are given in the Registers but are omitted from the MS Calendars, or which through clerical errors have been calendared under names so different as to be useless for purposes of reference, such as Prettejohn calendared as "Bettejohn".