Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills Index 1750-1800
- All Wales Counties
By 1750 the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop Canterbury (PCC) was
proving Wills and granting Administrations at a rate of about 7,000 a
year, and this number had grown to about 12,000 a year by 1800.
It was the supreme church court in the British Isles for the probate of
wills, and because of the great prestige of its acts and the greater
safety of its records it had attracted the probate of wills of men of
substance at least since the Reformation.
The Bank of England acknowledged no probate other than of this court,
and the wills of persons who died abroad possessing property in this
country were almost invariably proved at Canterbury. Because of this the
PCC wills include copies of those of numerous Irish and colonial persons
who had a second probate at the PCC and whose wills have not survived in
their own countries. Particularly in the period under consideration,
thousands of bi-national Hollanders and other Europeans who had invested
money in the British funds (again whose wills may not have survived or
be easily accessible in their own countries) had their wills proven by
the PCC.
The Bank of England did accept wills proved in other courts before 1812,
but after that date it demanded PCC wills only.