Devon

Contents & Search

THE AIM
The aim of the Devon Wills Project (DWP) is to provide a finding-aid in the form of a consolidated index of all Devon wills, and also administrations and inventories. The index shows where copies, transcripts, abstracts or extracts of such original testamentary documents may be found, and in many cases the whereabouts of the original documents themselves.

Almost all wills and administrations of Devon people were proved or granted in one of two locations, in Devon itself or in London. The originals of those wills proved in London (very nearly all at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, "PCC") have survived. However the originals of nearly all wills proved in Devon perished during an air-raid on Exeter in 1942. Printed 'calendars' (lists that are more chronological than alphabetical) covering maybe three quarters of the wills proved in Devon had been compiled before the war. It was decided that DWP's index should include every testamentary item that was listed in these calendars, whether or not a copy/transcript/abstract of the item had been located. Thus, our index includes a huge number of entries generated from these calendars that we term "list entries" ("le" in the "Form" Column of the index). Although in such cases the original will or administration is lost, and we may have been unable to locate any copy, transcript or abstract of it, at least its existence prior to 1942 is verifiable because it was listed in a calendar.

DWP's primary task has been to try to track down copies, transcripts and abstracts of these lost wills and administrations. If you are lucky, you will therefore find an additional entry nearby in the index showing "co", "tr" or "ab" in the "Form" Column, which indicates that we have indeed located a copy, a transcript or an abstract of the original.

CAVEATS
The Devon Wills Project is not itself transcribing or collecting transcripts or abstracts of wills, but merely offering information as to where such items may be found. Though we have tried to make sure our index is as accurate and user-friendly as possible, it may well include some errors and ambiguities over and above those in the sources on which we have drawn. Please inform us of any that you find.

THE SOURCES AND THE COVERAGE
DWP volunteers have scoured more than 400 sources (libraries, museums, record offices, archives, private document collections, catalogues, books, periodicals, indexes, calendars, the internet, etc., etc.) to find items for inclusion in this index. The sources searched are shown directly below in the List of Sources.

The index includes only testators (those who made wills) and intestates (those who did not make wills) whose estates were administered, and not other people mentioned in those documents. Wills, etc, are taken as being related to Devon if the testator/intestate is identified or can be assumed as being of Devon, even if the will or administration was proved or granted outside the county. The period covered is in general up to end of 1857, at which time ecclesiastical courts were disbanded and the probate of all Devon wills came under the jurisdiction of the Principal Probate Registry (PPR) in London. [A more exact indication of the index's coverage is given in More Detailed Notes.]

USING THE INDEX
It is usually best to consult first the consolidated index via the links at the bottom of this home webpage. Click on the appropriate initial letter of the surname you seek. When that webpage appears, if you find an entry which is of interest to you,

1. Check in the "Form" Column - if it doesn't say "le", you're in luck! Somewhere there is the original, a copy, a transcript or an abstract of that person's will. If it does say "le", check nearby entries to see if there is a similar entry that says "or", "co", "tr" or "ab". If there is only an "le" entry, then, sadly, we have found no original, copy, transcript or abstract. BUT, see also 4 below.
2. If you were 'in luck', make a note of the information shown, particularly noting the code given in the "Source" Column. If that source code is "MISC", note also the code or name before the hyphen in the next ("Reference") Column, (e.g. "Hooper2")
3. Return to the homepage, look in the List of Sources, locate the relevant source code (e.g. "DRO-C") and note the actual source name (e.g. "Devon Record Office Online Catalogue"). Then click on that source name (or on the relevant source section). The webpage you thus reach starts with an introduction which describes the source in detail, and also indicates where you should go, or who you should contact, to see (or perhaps obtain your own copy of) that particular will, administration or inventory.
4. If the source of your will was shown as "MISC", click on the link Miscellaneous Minor Sources in the "MISC" row in the List of Sources. [These sources are "minor" in the sense of containing only a relatively few items.] On the Miscellaneous Minor Sources webpage look for the code or name you recorded from the "Reference" Column. Note the precise details given of the relevant minor source (e.g. Hooper2: Hooper, Hilda J. Pedigrees to the name Hooper, Howper, Hoper etc. Manuscript volume (c.1950) [LMA]). The minor source will often be a book or periodical, which could be sought at a good reference library. If the minor source is not a published one, then the details given will indicate its location - the London Metropolitan Archives in this example.
5. If at first you cannot locate the will you hope to find in our index, consider the ways in which that person's surname might have been spoken, and thus possible phonetically-based spelling variations of the name. It is often the first vowel in a surname which proved flexible, e.g. Hallman/Helman/Hillman/Holman, Peeke/Pick/Pyke, Harrell/Hearle, Toker/Tucker, Berry/Burie, Diamond/Deyman, Lang/Long, Butler/Boteler.
6. Note that the consolidated index, which will probably have been your first 'port of call', is only updated at intervals. It may be worth looking in the List of Sources for sources whose indexing appears to be as yet incomplete, and are thus still in the process of being transcribed and not yet fully incorporated into the consolidated index. Then look at the index within the webpage of that individual (incomplete) source.
7. There will be cases where there are several entries (from different Sources) relating to the same original will or administration, e.g. identifying where an official copy of a will is held, and the locations of transcripts and/or abstracts of this will. You should be able to work out which source would be most convenient for you to inspect. Note also that index entries referring to the same will or administration may differ minutely, due to inconsistencies among the various Sources, transcription errors, etc.

VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers are still sought to help with the transcribing of information from those sources listed below that have yet to be completely dealt with. A set of Guidelines is available describing the transcription rules. For more information please contact Richard Grylls.

This page last updated: 16 May 2012 - Brian Randell

Consolidated index last updated: 21 Mar 2012

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