Pre-1858 National Wills Index/Catalogue

[AbdulMagicman]

The BRS has publised indices of every county's Pre-1858 Wills, but if you want to do a surname study and find all wills across the whole country, is there an Index that lists every will for that surname across all counties?

[Little Nell]

Hi, welcome to RootsChat. 

The closest is the National Wills Index, but it is not complete, only work in progress.

http://www.nationalwillsindex.com/

Before 1858, all English and Welsh wills were proved in ecclesiastical courts.  These did not always equate with counties.  It would depend on the extent and location of property and estate owned by the deceased as to which court the will would be proved in.  If it was wholly within one parish, then the lowest church court would suffice.  If it was in several different parishes or archdeaconries or a different diocese, then it would be proved in a much higher church court.  The highest court was the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.  The wills proved at this court are at TNA in class PROB 11 and the catalogue can be searched online.  Wills can be downloaded for a small fee.

Most county record offices now hold the diocesan records and may well list the wills that they hold in an index.  Some are searchable online, e.g. Hampshire at http://calm.hants.gov.uk/DServe/

So your task could be quite time consuming 

Nell

[AbdulMagicman]

Thanks Nell 

It's a shame they think it will take years before they comeplete the NWI. Just using the current BRS books and digitising them would be fairly simple but, reading between the lines, it seems they may be going back to the original records?