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 creation, or my discovery.
David Blackwell has scanned the printed calendar of
Lichfield Wills and Administrations (1516-1652), including
also Peculiars at Birmingham 1675-1790 and Peculiars at Derby
1753-1790. Please note these pages are G4TIFF images, so the
fastest way to get at them is to save each file to disk, and then
open in your favourite image viewer.
Alan Bloor is listing Wills of people of the parish of
Stanley on his
Stanley "One-Place" Study website.
Rob Burns invites submission of complete transcriptions of Wills for
his countrywide site 'Wills for All'.
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.
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's 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.
"Ex Libris Barry Humphrey" - abstracts of
FURNESS Wills and Admonitions, 1858-1903 collected by
Barry Humphrey from the Grants of Probate Printed Index held at the
Glamorgan Archives, Cardiff.
Chesterfield Wills and Inventories, 1604-1650.
Edited by J.M. Bestall and D.V. Fowkes. 2001.
ISBN 0 946324 24 7.
Available as one of
Derbyshire Record Society Publications
Derbyshire Wills proved in the Prerogative Court of
Canterbury, 1393-1578. Edited by David G. Edwards. 1998.
ISBN 0 946324 22 0
Available as one of
Derbyshire Record Society Publications
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.
Chesterfield Wills and Inventories, 1521-1603.
Edited by J.M. Bestall and D.V. Fowkes. 1977. One of
Derbyshire Record Society Publications, unfortunately out of
print, but should be available for study via Inter-Library Loan (ILL).
If you find any other sites with similar collections, I would be most
grateful if you would let me know, so I can give them a mention too.
My email address is:-
[Created 6 Apr 2001. Last updated 5 Jul 2007 - 16:09 by Rosemary Lockie]