A calendar of wills relating to the counties of Northampton and Rutland, proved in the court of the Archdeacon of Northampton, 1510 to 1652 / edited by W.P.W. Phillimore.

  • Church of England. Archdeaconry of Northampton.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A calendar of wills relating to the counties of Northampton and Rutland, proved in the court of the Archdeacon of Northampton, 1510 to 1652 / edited by W.P.W. Phillimore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Iiiirodtidion. in the principal registry at Somerset House. From 1652 to 1660 all Northamptonshire wills were, consequent on the abolition of the provincial courts, proved at London, and are to be found at Somerset House. Rutland wills were proved at both Peterborough and North- ampton ; at the former place they commence in 154b the exception of the break during the Commonwealth, when they were deposited at London, continued to be proved there until 1858, when this county was attached to the Leicester District Registry. The Rutland wills at Northampton commence in 1510, but strangely enough none can now be found of a later date than 1390> and no information respecting them is now forthcoming. Since 1858 the principal registry has taken the place of the old Preroga- tive Court of Canterbury, and the county of Northampton itself is allotted between the two district registries of Northampton and Peterborough. It may be useful to remember that since 1858 copies of all provincial wills are now deposited at Somerset House, and that there is an admirable modern printed calendar of the wills and administrations of the whole of England and Wales since that date, which is accessible to the public on application at the Prin- cipal or any of the District Registries. For any testamentary records relating to either county before the year 1510 search must be made in the calendars of the Prero- gative Court of Canterbury, which commence in 1383. It is said that amongst the wills from 1280 to 1547, preserved in the Bishop’s Registers at Lincoln, there are, as might be expected, some few relating to Northamptonshire and Rutland. Some, both before and after 1510, may also be found amongst what are known as the Lambeth wills, a calendar of which has been printed by Dr. Marshall in the Genealogist, and includes also “ vacancy” wills, a term which is applied to such as were proved during any vacancy of the archiepiscopal see. It may be noted here that no Administration Bonds for North- amptonshire are extant before 1660. The registers at Northampton into which the wills were tran- scribed are of paper, and some of the earlier volumes in past years have suffered considerably. Book A is much frayed in places, and occasionally large portions of pages are gone. The index is a modern one, as also is that to Book B, consequently no means