Devon Wills Project

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"The Prerogative Court of Canterbury was the metropolitan probate court for the Southern Province and, as such, was by far the busiest and most prestigious court. It sat in London, in Doctors' Commons, and had overriding jurisdiction in all England and Wales. It had sole jurisdiction where the deceased possessed bona notabilia in two bishoprics or two peculiars in the southern province, and also over estates of people who died at sea or abroad leaving personal property here." [From The National Archives' Research Guide to Probate Records.]

PROB 11 contains the collection at The National Archives (TNA) of the court copies of proved PCC wills, and covers the period 1387-1858. (Digital images of all the PROB 11 wills are now available for downloading - see DocumentsOnline's Wills Search Facility.)

This index has been produced by extensive editing of an electronic copy of the over 26,000 Devon items (the earliest of which dates from 1402) in DocumentsOnline's catalogue to PROB 11, which was very kindly provided to the Devon Wills Project by Laura Withey, TNA Licensing Manager, and her colleague Chris Owens.

In addition to the wills in PROB 11 The National Archives hold wills in a number of different record classes. Most of these additional wills are already listed in our index and may be found in our sources TNA and DDR1. Administrations held at The National Archives may be found in our sources JHA, ACA and DDR2.