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Derbyshire Wills Collections

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This page provides details of compilations of Derbyshire Probate Records (Wills), either partial abstracts or indexes, online and in printed collections. The following are listed in reverse order of their addition to this page.

  • Searchable index to Lichfield Wills, 1516-1652. The database has been compiled from Lichfield Wills and Administrations (1516-1652), including also Peculiars at Birmingham 1675-1790 and Peculiars at Derby 1753-1790, images of which are available elsewhere online. 1516-1561 was available 6 Mar 2009, with the rest added in early June 2010. Updated 4 Jun 2010.
     
  • Those researching ancestors on the borders of Derbyshire with Cheshire or Lancashire may find Wills of interest within online databases of Cheshire Wills.
     
  • An Index of Derbyshire Wills at the Derbyshire Record Office - for the period 1858-1928.
     
  • Scanned images of Lichfield Wills and Administrations (1516-1652), in GIF format, are available on Eric Youle's website of Sheffield Local History (under the 'Sheffield Historical' menu item).
     
  • Alan Bloor is listing Wills of people of the parish of Stanley on his Stanley "One-Place" Study website.
     
  • DocumentsOnline, the National Archives (Public Record Office) collection of digitised images of public records has all Wills proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) available for download as .PDF files. Generally these will be for the more wealthy testators holding land or property in more than one county; in May 2003 there were 3,213 Wills of Testators resident in Derbyshire listed.
     
  • John Spendlove has a Calendar of Wills of SPENDLOVE and similar surnames 1853-1992 for the whole UK, with transcribed versions of a number of these at www.spendlove.co.uk.
     
  • Some Derbyshire WILLS 1525-1928 - an index of mainly post-1858 Wills compiled by Michael Spencer and hosted on John Palmer's site www.wirksworth.org.uk.
     
  • A Calendar of Winster Wills 1494-1859 is available from All Things Winster - Dawn Scotting's blogspot..
     
  • Wills of Dore and Totley 1539 - 1747 is a book of 58 pages edited by David Hey, and published by the Dore Village Society in 1990. The Wills (including inventories) were transcribed by the Local History class, and the book contains 10 full transcriptions plus a list of all the other wills and inventories which were transcribed. A copy of this book has been donated to the Derbyshire Ancestral Research Group Library. Although DARG do not have a copy, it is understood that a second volume containing 31 further wills and inventories has also been published,
     
  • The Ancient Parish of Glossop - Index of Probate Documents, by A.K. Lee, R. Clarke, & S. McKenna, published by Derbyshire Family History Society, 1990.  ISBN 0947964 26 6. Covers the period 1472-1860.
    This booklet is out of print, but should be available for study via Inter-Library Loan (ILL). Or for purchase on microfiche - see Derbyshire Family History Society's Publications about Derbyshire - look for the heading Miscellaneous Microfiche and entry Glossop Probate.
     
  • Wills & Inventories of New Mills People Vol 1 1540-1571, Vol 2 1571-1582, edited by Roger Bryant, Audrey Lee, and Eileen Miller; Vol 3 1586-1607, edited by Audrey Lee, and Eileen Miller.
    Available from Derbyshire Family History Society - Publications about Derbyshire has a whole section on New Mills.
     
  • Chesterfield Wills and Inventories, 1604-1650. Edited by J.M. Bestall and D.V. Fowkes. Derbyshire Record Society, 2001. ISBN 0 946324 24 7.
     
  • Derbyshire Wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1393-1578. Edited by David G. Edwards. Derbyshire Record Society, 1998. ISBN 0 946324 22 0.
     
  • INCE's Pedigrees, a book from around 1830 which contains details of about 18,000 individuals from the Wirksworth area has been transcribed by John Palmer and friends for his site www.wirksworth.org.uk. Over 50% of the information comes from Wills accessed by Ince himself, who was a lawyer. Details can be found in section 4 'Ince's "PEDIGREES"1600-1860'. A great number of dates of Wills and codicils are listed.
     
  • Derbyshire Probate Records, a collection of abstracts begun by Rosemary Lockie in November 1999.
     
  • Leslie Mahler's abstracts of Wills from the Commissary Court of London 1629-1634 contain a few entries for Derbyshire.
     
  • Chesterfield Wills and Inventories, 1521-1603. Edited by J.M. Bestall and D.V. Fowkes. Derbyshire Record Society, 1977. Unfortunately out of print, but should be available for study via Inter-Library Loan (ILL).