Rutland Probate Records

England Rutland

The following text has information about probate records in the county of Westmoreland. To read general information 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/her heirs.

In order to find a probate record for your ancestor, you must answer two questions:

When did your ancestor die?
Where did your ancestor live or own property?

A key date is 1858, when probate authority was taken from the ecclesiatical courts of the Church of England and given to the civil government.

If your ancestor died before 1858, his/her probate would have been proven by an ecclesiatical court and it is important to know where he/she lived, as that will determine which courts had jurisdiction.
If you know where your ancestor lived before 1858, you should go to the Court Jurisdictions section below to determine what courts had jurisdiction over your ancestor's place of residence.
Beginning in 1858, probate authority was vested in the Principal Probate Registry system. For more information, scroll to the Post-1857 Probate Records section at the bottom of the page.

Once you have answered the two questions and determined the courts, look for indexes. Indexes will be found on the individual court pages (when you click on a court name) or in the Probate Indexes section below.

Rutland Probate Courts

<This section is under construction>

The courts that had pre-1858 jurisdiction over probate matters were:

For a list of Rutland parishes and the pre-1858 courts that had probate jurisdiction over them, click on a link for the span of letters for the parish. A-M N-Z

Some Explanatory Notes on the Yorkshire Probate Courts

Court Jurisdictions by Parish

Before 1858, every town and parish in Rutland fell under the probate jurisdiction of a primary court or a secondary court. For an authoritative treatise on each Rutland probate court and the parishes comprising them in pre-1858, see Anthony J. Camp's Wills and Their Whereabouts, available select locations and in 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 above.

The courts listed for each place are those that had jurisdiction over probating wills prior to 1858. To use this table, follow these steps.

1. In the first column, find the place where your ancestor lived.
2. In the second column, click on the court name to learn where to find the records and indexes.
3. If the record isn't found in the primary court, search the records for the secondary courts in the order listed.
4. If the record still isn't found, search the records for the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

If no will is found, your ancestor may not have left one.

Probate Indexes Online

Before looking for a will, you should search an index. The Northamptonshire and Rutland Probate Index was created by Kay Collins, a volunteer at the Northampton Record Office. She was partially assisted by others and from several earlier indices of probate records held in the Northampton Record Office. The indexing project started in 1997 and the records in the database include all work done up to 2005. The project is mostly complete (errors and omissions excepted). The database may be updated at a future date with corrections and/or omissions.

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 section about these records in the England Probate Records article in this Wiki, and 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.