Shrewsbury wills 1861

[Poppyjoey]

Hello, can anyone point me in the right direction to obtain a copy of a will listed in the 1861 Shrewsbury administrations? I'm going round in circles trying to find a link  - unless they are not available to order!

Thank you
Julie

[andycand]

Hi

The link below has information about applying for a copy of a will post 1858. You write to the Leeds address.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate/copies-of-grants-wills

Andy

[Poppyjoey]

Andy, thanks so much. I did come across this link before but obviously I didn't read it properly!

Julie

[dawnsh]

Hi Julie

If the entry you have located is for an 'Administration' there won't be a will. Adminsitrations are granted to the nearest surving relative when someone dies intestate (ie without leaving a will). You will be sending off £6 for an A4 sheet of paper that most probably has no more information on it thatn you already know.

If you post the name and date of death, someone here will check the 1861 calendar to check for you just to be sure.

Dawn

[Poppyjoey]

Hi Dawn,

Thanks for the advice, and probably saving me £6.

It is for James Abercrombie who died in Shifnal, Shropshire on 19.12.1860.

The entry is under 'Administrations 1861'. I found it on the Ancestry site. It has a handwritten note next to the entry 'Administration of goods unadministered passed at Shrewsbury July 1864'.

I've not got my head round wills, probate etc......yet!

What I was really hoping for was a signed will, as I want to hopefully compare James's signature with what I think is a record for his marriage. I thought I might be in luck if I could get hold of a will...seems it's not to be!

Julie

[dawnsh]

Just double checked the entry and there won't be a will so, as you said, £6 saved.

Sometimes the calendars say 'Adminstration with will', these are are worth applying for as the will has failed, usually due to the executors not being named or unwilling to act or predeceased. so in these instances there is a will but it isn't valid.

With regards to his signature, if you have a copy of the marriage entry from the actual parish register deposited at the archives, then it will be a true signature. Copies of certificates from the Bishops Trancripts, GRO or local register office will generally be transcriptions.

Have a look at the writing on the certificate, if all the 'signatures' are in the same hand as the bride's and groom's details then they are transcriptions.

Dawn

[Poppyjoey]

Dawn, many thanks for your help and advice.

I have a copy of the marriage entry and James has signed it, along with the bride Ellen Simpson(my GGG Grandparents). The signatures are not in the same handwriting as the rest of the entry, and both signatures are in a different hand, too. Both James and Ellen were born in Shifnal, however, the only marriage record I can find with these names took place in 1830 in Sandridge, Hertfordshire which was 125 miles away.  I thought if I could get something else with either of their signatures it would establish if the Hertfordshire marriage was indeed theirs! It just seems odd to me that they would have married so far from home. They are both in Shifnal on the 1841 census.

Julie