Berkshire Probate Records

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Probate Records

Getting Started

Probate is the legal court process by which the estate of a deceased person is distributed to his or her heirs. Probate records include wills and administrations. This article is about probate records in Berkshire. See England Probate Records for a general description of probate records in England.

1858 to the Present

Beginning in 1858, the Principal Probate Registry had the authority for probating estates. Click on the link to learn more.

Online Records

• 1858-1957 England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957 at FamilySearch; index — How to Use this Collection

Before 1858

Before 1858, Church of England ecclesiastical courts had authority for this process. To search for a pre-1858 probate record in Berkshire, follow these steps:

Step 1. Search Indexes

Here are some indexes to probate records that include individuals who lived in Berkshire. Search these indexes first:

Before looking for a will, you should search an index.

• Berkshire Wills Index, 1480-1857. The Berkshire Record Office
• Berkshire Probate Index at Findmypast, index ($)
• Wills and Administrations 1508-1652 at Findmypast, index ($)
• Berkshire Probate Records 1653-1710 at Findmypast, index ($)
• Berkshire wills in Wiltshire. This index is in Wiltshire, but has over 11,000 probate records in this online court index.
• Hungerford and Wantage. This is a collection of about 1000 abstracts of probate documents relating to people residing in the neighbourhood of the towns of Hungerford and Wantage in Berkshire. Since Hungerford is on the County boundary there is some spread into Wiltshire and to a lesser extent into Hampshire and Oxfordshire.
• Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills (1384-1858)
• Berkshire Archdeaconry Probate Records 1480-1652 Contents: v. 15. Part 1, Index to personal names -- v. 16. Part 2, Index to place names -- v. 17. Part 3, Index to occupations
• Court of the Archdeacon of Berkshire An index to the surnames, other than those of testators ... occurring in the registered wills of the Archdeaconry of Berks ... : registers A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I & 19 and parts of register J (pp. 1-578) & register M (pp. 1-245), ca. A.D. 1480-1710
• Index to wills proved and administrations granted in the Court of the Archdeacon of Berks, 1508 to 1652 The link takes you to a book version of the index. The book has been microfilmed several times but the copy on the FS Library microfilm number 88088 has additional comments in it.
• Archdeaconry of Berkshire. Wills and administrations, 1508-1857(*) at FamilySearch Catalog; Wills, 1525-1857(*) at FamilySearch Catalog.
• Index of the probate records of the Court of the Archdeacon of Berkshire : volume 2, 1653-1710

Here is a list of Berkshire parishes with peculiar jurisdictions for probating wills at a more local level:

• Registers of grants of admonitions, 1547-1857. FS Library film 1849335 (first of 25)(*). Some of these films include indexes.
• Parish register transcripts, 1508-1837, for the parish of Appleford in Berkshire. FS Library film 1278815, item 5 - images.
• Parish register transcripts, 1508-1837, for the parish of Drayton in Berkshire. FS Library film 1278815, item 8 - images.
• Wills and administrations, 1547-1853)(*) at FamilySearch Catalog. The jurisdiction of this court included the parish of Faringdon which included Little Coxwell, Littleworth, Thrupp, Kindell Weare, Wadley, Port, Puckety, Westbrooke and Little Wickensham. This court is a Salisbury Prebend.

Did you find a reference to a probate record?

If yes, go to Step 4 below.

If no, go to Step 2 below.

Step 2. Identify when and where your ancestor died

Determine when your ancestor died. If you aren't sure, use an approximate date.

Determine where your ancestor died. It is easier to find a probate record if you know whether the place where your ancestor lived or died is a parish. To learn whether it is a parish, look it up in a gazetteer. Here is a link to the 1872 Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales online:

• Vision of Britain

The gazetteer will either tell you:

• A place is a parish, or
• What parish it is a part of, or
• What place it is near.

If the latter, look that place up in the gazetteer and see if it is a parish.

Once you have identified the parish, go to Step 3.

Step 3. Identify court jurisdictions by parish

Once you have identified the parish where your ancestor lived or died, learn which courts had jurisdiction over it then search indexes for those courts. Every town and parish in Berkshire fell under the probate jurisdiction of a primary court and several secondary courts. Most of the places in Berkshire were under the jurisdiction of the Court of the Archdeaconry of Berkshire. Click here to see an alphabetical list of Berkshire parishes that were the exceptions, and the courts that had jurisdiction over them.

Step 4. Obtain a copy of the probate record

Once you have found an index reference to a probate, obtain a copy of the record. Do so by one of these methods:

• Berkshire England Probate Records(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - some images may only be available at a FamilySearch Center or FamilySearch Affiliate Library.
  
• Visit or contact the record office that has the original records in its collection.

Berkshire Probate Courts

Most of Berkshire was under the jurisdiction of the Court of the Archdeaconry of Berkshire. The majority of probate searches will be in the records of this court and its superior courts, which were the Court of the Bishop of Salisbury (Episcopal Consistory) until 1836 and the combined Courts of the Bishop (Episcopal Consistory) and Archdeaconry of Oxford from that time on. The courts should be searched in that order.

However, the following courts also had some pre-1858 probate jurisdiction within the county. Click on a court name to learn about records and indexes.

• Court of the Bishop of Bristol (Episcopal Consistory)
• Court of the Bishop of Gloucester (Episcopal Consistory)
• Court of the Peculiar of Banbury
• Court of the Peculiar of Faringdon
• Court of the Peculiar of Langford
• Court of the Peculiar of the Dean of Salisbury (Sarum)
• Court of the Peculiar of the Dean of Windsor
• Court of the Peculiar of the Dean and Canons of Windsor in Wantage
• Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury
• Free online index from Berkshire Record Office to all Berkshire Archdeaconry probates 1480-1857 Berkshire records