Devon Wills Project

Contents & Search

This collection consists of a set of sixteen volumes of typescript abstracts of 13th to 17th century Inquisitions Post Mortem, held at the Westcountry Studies Library, Exeter (WSL), made by H. Tapley-Soper (1876-1951), City Librarian of Exeter for almost 40 years. The original Inquisitions Post Mortem are held at the National Archives.

Inquisitions post mortem (sometimes known as escheats) were inquiries undertaken after the death of a feudal tenant of the crown, to establish what lands the deceased had held and who should succeed to them. They were used from Mediaeval times to about 1660. Because the documents mention heirs and often other relatives of the deceased, they can be of great use to family historians researching their early ancestry, especially when wills have not survived. (The Medieval Genealogy website provides a helpful page about Inquisitions Post Mortem.)

This TAPS index will when complete cover all the abstracts in the Tapley-Soper Collection. Thus it will include all those from Cornwall together with a small number from other counties as well as all those from Devonshire. It is being prepared by Lindsey Withers and John Gunson, from photographs taken by Ken Ozanne, with the kind permission of the Westcountry Studies Library.

To obtain information about the possibility of viewing the documents listed, photographing them or acquiring photocopies of them by post, you should contact the Westcountry Studies Library directly.