Yorkshire Probate Records

England  Yorkshire

The following text has information about probate records in the county of Yorkshire. To read general information about  English probate records click here.

Getting Started in Probate Records

Probate is the legal court process by which the estate of a deceased person is distributed to his or her heirs. The Church of England ecclesiastical courts had authority for this process until to 1858. Beginning in 1858, authority over probate matters was taken from ecclesiastical courts and put under the civil authority of the Principal Probate Registry. The Post-1857 Probate Records section below contains links to additional information about the records of this court.

To look for a probate record before 1858:

1. Discover when and where your ancestor died. If you don’t know, use the approximate date and place where they lived.
2. Go to Court Jurisdictions section below.
3. Click a letter or span of letters for your place. This opens a jurisdictions table.
4. Follow the instructions on the jurisdictions table page.
   

Yorkshire Probate Courts

Yorkshire is the largest county in England and has more than 1,000 parishes. More than 60 courts were over Yorkshire before 1858. Click here to see the list.

In addition, the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury had jurisdiction over the whole of England and specifically in the following cases.

1. Wealthy individuals
2. People who owned property in more than one county
3. Military and naval personnel
4. People who lived or owned property outside England

Appeals Courts

Any probate that was disputed and could not be settled by the county courts could be sent to these higher appeals courts:

• Court of Arches
  
• High Court of Delegates
  
• Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Court Jurisdictions

Before 1858, every town and parish in Yorkshire was under the probate jurisdiction of a primary court and several secondary courts. When searching for the will of an ancestor, find the name of the town or parish where he/she lived in the jurisdictions list. Go to the list of places by clicking on a letter or series of letters below.

 A   B    C   D   E-F   G    H    I-K   L   M-N   O-P   Q-R   S  T-U   W   Y.

Court Jurisdictions by Parish

Before 1858, every town and parish in Yorkshire fell under the probate jurisdiction of a primary court and several secondary courts.  For an authoritative treatise on each Yorkshire probate court and the parishes comprising them in pre-1858, see Anthony J. Camp's publication, Wills and Their Whereabouts, also available at the Family History Library, FHL book #942 S2wa. 

When looking for the will of an ancestor, you should search the courts in the order given.  Search indexes first.  For indexes, click on the court name links [soon to be constructed].

Here is a list of Yorkshire parishes beginning with the letter A and the pre-1858 courts that had probate jurisdiction over them.  For other parishes, click on a letter to link to the another table.

Probate Indexes Online

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

Probate Index related to documents covering Lancashire north of the Ribble, and parts of Cumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire, 1748-1858.

York Peculiars Probate Index covers over 25,000 wills proved in the fifty four peculiar courts of the Province of York in the five-hundred year period from 1383 to 1883.

Prerogative & Exchequer Courts of York Probate Index 1842-1858

An index covering 1267 to 1500 includes 10,000 wills proved in the Prerogative & Exchequer Courts of York.

Colin Blanshard Withers has produced a list of all known Indexes and Calendars relating to Yorkshire Probate. This is available in both MS Word format (.doc) and plain text format (.txt) from his site.

Post-1857 Probate Records

Beginning in 1858, the government took over the settlement of estates and all wills are now probated through the Principal Probate Registry system.  The system consists of 11 district registry offices and 18 sub-district registries, located throughout England and Wales, and the principal registry office located in London.  The records are available through the office of Her Majesty's Courts Service.  To learn more, go to the HMCS website.

A country-wide surname index to the records is available, so it is much easier to look for post-1857 wills.  The indexes for 1858-1957 and the records for 1858-1925 are available on microfilm at the Family History Library.

Family History Library (FHL); now called, FamilySearch Library (FSL)