West Berkshire Wills Beneficiaries Index - Lookups offered.
Some years ago my wife Trish [nee Walker] started to collect wills and abstracts from old West Berkshire, mainly centered around Wantage. These she indexed by beneficiary - in other words if a person is mentioned in a will they will appear here, with information such as the relationship to the testator, and where the full will can be found. By this method it may be possible to find people and relationships not available elsewhere. At present the index is far from complete - about 9,000 names. We have wills waiting to be abstracted and abstracts waiting to be indexed which would add probably another 9,000. Depending on the interest shown we may be stimulated to do more work on this!
I am prepared to do lookups in this index.
It does NOT include wills after 1837.
For a look up request please start a new topic in the CENSUS and RESOURCE LOOKUP REQUEST board for this county.
Charles Bazalgette
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Typical index entries look like this:
Person Named Place Occupation Year Assigned Role Relationship Testator Court
Abbott, Robert [Charnham St] 1677 witness James Hardinge (b) DCW
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KEY
Probate Court Abbreviations:
ADB Archdeacon of Berkshire
ADO Archdeacon of Oxfordshire
ADW Archdeacon of Wiltshire
CS Consistory Court of the Bishop of Sarum
DCW Dean and Canons of Windsor (excluding Peculiar Court of Wantage 1582-1668)
DS Dean of Sarum
FPec Peculiar Court of Faringdon
PCC Prerogative Court of Canterbury
WPec Peculiar Court of Wantage (1582-1668)
Also:
BRO Miscellaneous wills and probate documents deposited at the Berkshire Record Office.
SDR Salisbury Diocesan Register
Notes:
Person Named - 'ygr' = 'the younger'; 'eld' = 'the elder';
+ = that person's signature appears on the document that was indexed.
x = that person did not sign the document, but made their mark.
Spelling of surnames has not been standardised, but close variations have been indexed together with headings to indicate which names have been brought together (e.g. 'Hidden incl. Heading, Hedden, Iden'). Surnames of different families but with similar sound or spelling have 'see also' references in the headings (e.g. 'Paty see also Petty')
Spelling of christian names has been regularised (actual spelling in round brackets):
Catherine/Katherine - see Catherine
Elisabeth - see Elizabeth
Geoffrey - see Jeffery
Johane, Jone - see Joan
Marie - see Mary
Variations of Christian names have not be regularised (e.g. Sybil is not combined with Isabell) except:
Betty - see Elizabeth
Harry - see Henry
Place - in round brackets if implied but not specifically stated (usually because husband/father is said to be of that place)
- in square brackets if it is the place where the testator is from (to give an idea of the person's general location)
Occupation - given if stated in the will, otherwise other relevant information is put into brackets (often relationship to a person other than the
testator)
Year - year of probate, note that the will may have been written long before it was proved
Assigned role, if any - only one role is given; there may be more. Overseers, executors, etc are often beneficiaries too;
admon.=administration was granted to that person
Relationship - i.e. relationship to testator as described in the will (remember that, for example, 'son-in-law' could mean 'daughter's husband,'
'step-son,' or 'adopted son')
Testator - a= administration, b=bond, c=codicil, co=commission, i=inventory, o=oath, w = will (if nothing, then just a will is implied)
r=renunciation
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A typical abstracted record will look like this:
GIBSON, Thomas PCC will 1775 [also in BRO D/EZ 7/117/1]
of Englefield, victualler
son: John
daughters: Mary wife of Thomas Steward; Eleanor wife of William Ludlow; Elizabeth Wyatt;
Sarah wife of Thomas Farmer; Ann Gibson
grandson: Thomas Farmer
executors: son John, daughter Ann, & son-in-law William Ludlow
witnesses: Thomas Ireland & Nicholas Boon
dated: 14 April 1775 probate: 5 May 1775
