Return to South Petherton information
We acknowledge the help of the Somerset Record Office http://www.somerset.gov.uk/archives.
The transcripts are circulated without profit to the transcriber and with a proviso that any subsequent copying is allowed only if free of profit. Anyone wishing to include a subsequent copy as part of a profit-making publication or distribution must apply to the Somerset Archive and Record Service for permission.
The transcriber has given permission to publish her work online. As these are transcriptions, the transcriber take no responsibility for their accuracy or completeness. You are advised to check the original source to confirm the transcribed information.
SOUTH PETHERTON WILLS
Although many Somerset wills were destroyed at Exeter in WW2, the surviving wills make a fantastic source of information for family history. There are also some surviving inventories of the deceased property. The attached is a summary of wills/inventories we are aware of. Please let us know if you can contribute any further details of additional wills or brief details of legatees, executors and witnesses of the wills already listed.
Most surviving wills are held by the Somerset Record Office at Taunton (SRO), http://www.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ but others were proved in the Pregorative Court of Court (PCC) and are now held at the National Archives at Kew and available online http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/about.asp . Some inventories are also held at Kew (TNA). Some wills have been transcribed and published by the Somerset Record Society.
http://www.westcountrygenealogy.com/somerset/somrecsoc.htm
From 1858 indexes of probate records were centralised in England and Wales and can be consulted at Her Majesty’s Court Service in London from where you can get copies of wills http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1226.htm or by post.
They are also available on microfilm at some libraries, including the Society of Genealogists in London www.sog.org.uk/
Reference works for Somerset Wills include:
Frederick Arthur Crisp: Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills from collection of Rev F Brown (1887) (facsimile copy on CD available from Bernard Welchman at http://www.thebookshop.org.uk/somerset.htm .)
Edward Alexander Fry (Ed): Calendar of Wills and Administrations in the Court of the Archdeacon of Taunton 1537-1799; British Record Society (1912)
Sir Mervyn Medlycott: Somerset Wills Index: Printed & Manuscript Copies; Harry Galloway Publishing (1993) ISBN 1-873931-17-4
Somerset Record Society volume 40: Medieval Wills from Wells 1543-46 & 1554-1556 Ed D O Shilton and R Holworthy (1925)
Volume 62: Somerset Wills from Exeter (1952)
Volume 89: Somerset Wills extracted by A J Monday Ed Mary Siraut (2003)
F W Weaver: Wells Wills 1528-1536 (1890)
Adrian James Webb: Index of Somerset Probate Inventories; Harry Galloway Publishing (1995) ISBN 1-873931-41-7
The Society of Genealogists in London has a 1937 transcript of Abstracts of Taunton Archdeaconry Court Wills by H R Phipps.
The SRO has a helpful section about wills at http://www.somerset.gov.uk/archives/
In the list of South Petherton wills the following abbreviations are used for sources:
Somerset Record Office (SRO); Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC); Weaver’s Wells Wills (WW); Crisp’s Abstract of Somersetshire Wills (ASW); Somerset Record Society (SRS), Society of Genealogists (SOG) and the National Archives (TNA). EDW signifies an Estate Duty Will which the SRO has on microfilm.