The story of Somerset's wills is a sad one. Until 1858 the proving of wills and the granting of administrations came under the jurisdiction of the church courts. Having been centralised at Exeter, most of the county's original pre 1858 probate records were destroyed by German bombing in 1942, as were those for Devon and Cornwall. In spite of these losses, a number of wills and will copies have survived and are available at the Somerset Heritage Centre and elsewhere.

There are two indispensable books giving information on surviving locally-proved wills and will copies:

• Medlycott, Sir Mervyn, (1993), Somerset Wills Index: Printed and Manuscript Copies, (Q 929.3 Wills 2)
• Hawkins, David, (1995), Index of Somerset Estate Duty Office Wills and Letters of Administration 1805-1811 & 1812-1857, (Q 929.3 Wills 4 and Q 929.3 Wills 5)

Sir Mervyn Medlycott’s book alone contains more than 17,000 entries and lists Somerset wills held at the Somerset Heritage Centre and elsewhere (with some exceptions). Together, these books provide a largely comprehensive list of locally-proved wills and will copies which were known to survive at the time of publishing. Further wills are being discovered all the time, and it is always advisable to also check the Somerset Heritage Centre index of Office Wills which can be searched here and the online catalogue.

Wills proved locally (up to 1858) and associated papers

The majority of probate records we hold at the Somerset Heritage Centre are indexes to or abstracts of the wills that were proved by the church courts, made before the original wills were destroyed in 1942. However, copies of a number of pre 1858 wills and associated probate records do exist amongst some of our collections.

• Microfiche copies of alphabetical lists of testators (stating names, places and dates of probate) whose wills were proved in the Consistory and Peculiar Courts at Wells up to 1857 are held both at the Somerset Heritage Centre and by the Society of Genealogists. The lists for the period 1529-1600 have been published by the Somerset Record Society, Vol. 62, and continued to 1648 in typescript (ref. DD/X/SR/8).
• Abstracts of wills compiled by Olive Mary Moger during her work as a record agent during the 1930s are held at the Somerset Heritage Centre (ref. DD/MGR/4) and have been published by the Somerset Record Society, Vol. 94. A similar collection of abstracts of wills compiled by Alfred James Monday prior to his death in 1920 (ref. DD/SAS/C795/RF/3) has also been published by the Somerset Record Society, Vol. 89.
• Lists of both wills and administrations for the Archdeaconry of Taunton, 1537-1799, and of wills proved in the court of the Royal Peculiar of Ilminster, 1690-1857, were published by the British Record Society, Vols. 45 and 45a. The lists are available at the Somerset Heritage Centre and the list of Taunton Wills is searchable on Ancestry. In the vast majority of cases the original documents have not survived.
• Microfilm copies of the Estate Duty registers of wills (abstracts) and letters of administration, 1805-1811 (ref. T/PH/pro/12), and original Estate Duty copy wills (excluding administrations or 'Peculiar' wills) for the period 1812-1857 (ref. DD/ED) are held at the Somerset Heritage Centre. For details of the microfilmed wills (abstracts) and letters of administration, 1805-1811, please see the index of Somerset Estate Duty Office Wills and Letters of Administration 1805-1811, compiled by David T. Hawkings, in our Local Studies Library (Q/929.31/HAW/1995).
• Drafts or copies of wills can be often be found amongst estate and solicitors’ collections. The majority of these have been noted in the Somerset Heritage Centre index of Office Wills and many have also been listed on the online catalogue.
• A wealth of probate related papers can be found in the Diocesan collection. Many of these can be found under the reference D/D/ct*. For example, a few surviving wills and inventories proved by the Diocese for the period 1575-1640 (ref. D/D/ct) and administrator’s and executor's accounts for the period 1577-1784 (ref. D/D/cta), recording the expenses of administering a deceased person’s estate, including details of bequests and at times inventories of property. Both these series of records have been listed on our online catalogue. Will registers for the period 1543-1626 also exist (ref. D/D/ctr) and have been indexed (see the Somerset Heritage Centre index of Office Wills). Probate and Administration Acts are recorded in the Diocesan Licence Books (ref. D/D/ol), 1558-c.1850. Testamentary Bonds (ref. D/D/ctb) exist mainly for the 17th century, and detail the persons appointed as executors or administrators, and at times, the guardians of children (please note that this collection is unlisted).
• A probate inventory is a complete list of items, such as property, goods in stock or the contents of a building. It can include books in the library or household utensils in servants’ quarters for example. A large collection of probate inventories for the Archdeaconry of Taunton (c. 1630-1730) survives in the Sheppard Collection (ref. DD/SP) and a list to these is available on the online catalogue. Some further inventories can be found in other collections also held by Somerset Archives and Local Studies, including the Diocesan collection (see above).

There is a separate index for probate inventories. We also hold a publication, Adrian Webb’s Handlist of Somerset Probate Inventories and Administrators’ Accounts, 1482-1924 Somerset Record Society, Vol 98 , which gives details of more than 7,600 inventories surviving both at the Somerset Heritage Centre and elsewhere.

Wills not proved locally (up to 1858)

Individuals who held property in more than one diocese or who were particularly well-off had their wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC). These wills can be consulted on film at The National Archives at Kew and can be downloaded from their website.

PCC wills for Somerset in the period 1383-1558 have been published by the Somerset Record Society, Vols. 16, 19 and 21. Printed lists of PCC wills, 1383-1700 and 1750-1800, are available at the Somerset Heritage Centre. A very helpful resource for Somerset wills mainly (but not exclusively) from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury up to c.1730 is Somerset Wills by F.A. Crisp, taken from the manuscript of Revd F. Brown (ref. Q 929.3 WILLS 6).

During the Commonwealth ecclesiastical jurisdiction of wills was suspended. From about 1652-1660 all wills were proved before a civil authority in London. These can be found with the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills at The National Archives.

Wills proved after 1858

From 1858, the probate of wills and granting of letters of administration ceased to be a matter for local ecclesiastical courts. The Somerset Heritage Centre has microfiche copies of the index of grants of probate for England and Wales, 1858-1943, and which are also available online via Ancestry and Find My Past.

Wills proved from 1858 onwards can be consulted online from the government Probate Search website. Charges apply for this service.

Helpful Key Words

• Administrations: Arises if the deceased is legally intestate, meaning they did not leave a will, or some assets are not disposed of by their will
• Consistory Court: A court presided over by a bishop, for the administration of ecclesiastical law in a diocese
• Executor: The person named by the maker of a will (the testator) to carry out the instructions of the will
• Peculiar Court: An ecclesiastical court of the Church of England. It deals with all legal matters from peculiar parishes
• Peculiar Parishes: A Church of England parish or church exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese, and subject to the direct jurisdiction of the monarch
• Prerogative Court: A court through which the discretionary powers, privileges and legal immunities reserved to the monarch, were exercised
• Proved: The process of confirming to a probate court that a document is truly the will of the deceased person
• Testator: a person who has made a will or given a legacy