Index of Wills
Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, 1650-1750
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Background
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| Between 1541 and 1836 the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry was extensive,
covering the entire counties of Staffordshire and Derbyshire, north Shropshire
and north Warwickshire. The bishop of Lichfield and Coventry had general
jurisdiction over probate within this area, which was exercised through the
Lichfield Consistory Court. |
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| Some areas, known as peculiar jurisdictions or peculiars, were exempt from the
bishop’s jurisdiction. These were usually in the hands of other church
officials or, in a handful of cases, lords of manors. |
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| The general rule is that where someone held property within one diocese only,
the will would be proved, or administration granted, in that court; if in two
dioceses, then in the archbishop’s prerogative court. Prerogative Court of
Canterbury (PCC) wills indexes can be found freely available online on the TNA
website (The
National Archives - Online Indexes - PCC Wills). |
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| From 1653 to 1660, a court of civil commission had the sole probate
jurisdiction in England and Wales. The records are filed with those of the PCC.
Church courts had substantially shut down during the period of the Civil War
after 1642. |
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 Further
information about peculiar jurisdictions (PDF 67kb) |
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The probate process
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| As part of the necessary process to making a will, the testator appointed an
executor (or more than one). Their immediate task, after the testator died, was
to arrange for burial, pay and collect debts and get the will proved. |
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| If someone died without making a will (intestate), the court had the authority
to appoint administrators. Usually, this would be next of kin – wife/husband,
child/children, parent, brother/sister and so on. |
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| Further details about
the probate process |
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Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry – surviving records
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| In many dioceses, each archdeaconry had its own probate court. In Lichfield,
this did not happen and the Consistory Court is the main court for the whole
diocese. |
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| Survival of original consistory wills is good after 1600. The manuscript
indexes, compiled in the 1850s, have used the act books (with their short, one
or two line entries for each case) as their source for the earlier period. Not
all documents mentioned there have survived. This makes the published Index
Library calendar for the period 1516 to 1652 (by W.P.W. Phillimore, 1892)
unreliable, because it relied on these manuscript indexes and ignored the tick
markings which indicate what actually survives. |
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| Peculiar court wills are fewer in number and survival is poorer. In particular,
there is no regular series for any of the peculiars before the seventeenth
century. |
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| Few inventories survive after around 1750. |
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About this index
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| This is an index to: |
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wills proved in the Lichfield Consistory Court and the various peculiar courts
whose records are preserved at Lichfield Record Office;
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letters of administration issued by the above courts when people died without
leaving a will; and
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surviving inventories of goods and chattels drawn up by the executors or
administrators of estates.
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| It currently covers the period 1650-1750.
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| A successful search in the index will provide you with the following
information : |
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| Surname, forename(s), gender, place of residence, county, occupation or status,
date, court, document reference, notes. |
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| Please note that the names of parishes have been standardized using modern
spellings to assist with searching, but the names of smaller localities retain
their original spelling. |
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Other records of interest
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| Where probate was disputed, there may be related papers within the series of
Cause Papers (B/C/5) for the Lichfield Consistory Court. Searches in these
records can be carried out by using the online catalogue (for material in the
period 1681 to 1857, where detailed listing of testamentary records by Anne
Tarver has been included). |
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Research Service
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| Lichfield Record Office operates a research service that can search for wills
in the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry outside of the period 1650-1750. If
you would like to find out more please click on the link below, which will take
you to the relevant page on the Archive Service’s main website. |
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| Lichfield Records Research Service Main Web Page |
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| Note: Links to external sites will open in a new window. |