Wills and other Probate Records

A Will

Letters of Administration, also known as Admons, are grants of probate to the next of kin to administer the property of a person where there was no will.

Inventories are lists of personal and household goods left by the deceased.

Wills are an invaluable source of information for the family historian giving details about the testator and his or her relatives. Obviously not everyone made a will and an administration was not taken for everyone who died intestate. However, where there is a will, it supplies information which cannot be found in other documents such as detailed information of a person's possessions and how they were to be distributed on their death. Apart from the very early ones, wills are nearly always written in English. Letters of administration were in Latin before 1733.

Up to 1858 probate business for West Sussex was transacted in church courts which dealt with the following areas:

The archdeaconry of Chichester, which contained most parishes of the pre 1974 county of West Sussex, with the exception of the peculiar jurisdictions described below and a small group of parishes on the eastern border.

The Dean's Peculiar of the City of Chichester, comprising of the parishes of St Andrew, St Bartholomew, St Martin, St Olave, St Pancras, St Peter the Great, St Peter the Less, the Close, New Fishbourne and Rumboldswhyke.

The Archbishop's Peculiar Jurisdiction of Pagham and Tarring, comprising the parishes of South Bersted, Chichester All Saints, Durrington, Heene, East Lavant, Pagham, Patching, Slindon, Tangmere and West Tarring, together with Plaistow chapelry in Kirdford and a small area of Horsham called the Bishopric.

Those persons whose wills were proved in the local courts were mainly tradesmen, farmers, the middle classes and lower gentry. The rich proved their wills in London, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury; the poor rarely had possessions that needed a will.

Those wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury can be obtained online for a fee from the National Archives Documents Online facility.

In 1858 the civil authorities became involved and since that date all wills and administrations for England and Wales have been proved in the Principal Probate Registry, London or locally at a District Probate Registry.

Original wills for the archdeaconry of Chichester, and the peculiar jurisdictions within it up to 1858 together with those for the Chichester District Probate Registry, which covered most of West Sussex, up to 1928. Microfilm copies of wills for the archdeaconry of Lewes, 1518-1858, the Archbishops Peculiar of South Malling, 1588-1858 and Royal Peculiar of Battle 1531-1616, 1657-1730 are also available.

Microfiche are available for all the main series of pre 1858 probate records and microfilm for probate records 1858-1900. Readers are asked to use them to save wear and tear on the originals. For Chichester District Probate Registry wills 1900-1928, the originals are available for research.

Indexes

Numerous printed and card indexes are available for use. The Record Office also holds a microfiche of national probate calendars 1858-1943 which each provide an alphabetical list, with abstracted details of wills proved and administrations granted.