Lancashire Record Office lookup please - wills

[michelledennis]

Hello, I am hoping that someone may be able to obtain copies of two wills of my direct ancestors please.  They are held at Lancashire Record Office and the references are -

Bramley, Lawrence, of Easterly, farmer 15 May 1805 WCW

Bramley, Roger, of Little Mearley, chapelry of Clitheroe, yeoman 1768 WCW

kind regard
Michelle Dennis, Melbourne, Australia

[heatherjulie]

Hi
Is this him? If so it says Cheshire. Just posted this so that someone can check it to prevent a possible wasted journey.


Bramley, Lawrence

Dates:15 May 1805

Place:Easterly, Cheshire, England

Book:Births Anno 1657. (Birth) 

Collection Cheshire: - Wills and Inventories, 1801-1810 (A-L)

Volume List of Wills and Administrations (Including the Infra Wills), Now Preserved in the Probate Registry at Chester. For the Years 1801-1810, Both Inclusive.

Chapter A to L.

Text Bramley, Lawrence, of Easterly, farmer 15 May 1805



Bramley, Robert

Dates 1768

Place Little Mearley Clitheroe, Cheshire, England

Book Births Anno 1657. (Birth) 

Collection Cheshire: - Wills and Inventories, 1761-1780 (A-M)

Volume List of the Wills Now Preserved in the Probate Registry, Chester, From the Year 1761 to 1780 Inclusive.

Chapter List of "Infra" Wills (or Those in Which the Personalty Was Under £40) Now Preserved at The Probate Court, Chester. 1701-1720.

Bramley, Robert, of Little Mearley, chapelry of Clitheroe, yeoman 1768


Heatehr

[BridgetM]

The wills are not in the Lancashire Record Office.  Here's a link to their online catalog:

http://archivecat.lancashire.gov.uk/CalmView/advanced.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog

[michelledennis]

Hello,
 just to confirm these two wills are definitely held at the Lancashire Archives office. I emailed them yesterday, and they did confirm that they definitely have both wills available for viewing.

I did mention that they do not appear on their catalogue, but the Archive assistant definitely confirmed that they are there, so if someone could help me that would be great.

Marion Hartley, Archive Assistant, Lancashire Archives, Lancashire County Council
01772 533039     www.lancashire.gov.uk

cheers Michelle

[Gibel]

Lancashire Record Office will make copies of the wills for you and post them to you. The costs are quite reasonable. If they say they have them I'm sure they do!

[michelledennis]

Thanks Gibel, but the problem is I can't pay them easily from Australia. They don't accept electronic payment and the cost to change Aus dollars into Eng pounds is prohibitive. Thanks though, Michelle

[smudwhisk]

Could you not telephone the Records Office and pay by credit card over the phone, using something like Skype which charges a lot less than a normal phone company?  Many RO's will take payment over the phone with credit cards.  I know a distant relative of mine who lives in Brisbane has ordered some copy Wills from Wiltshire Records Office over the phone and they didn't cost her that much to be sent to Australia.

It may well be that Lancashire Records Office have copies but the originals are held elsewhere.

I appreciate you have the time difference issue, but it's worth bearing in mind that many Records Offices in the UK charge for a photography permit, often anything up to £10 per day, for photographs to be taken and unless someone is actually intending to photograph documents for themselves, you may find you don't get a response.  Even if they are available on microfilm, the charges per page for microfilm prints have gone up somewhat in recent years.

As an alternative, you may wish to have a look at - http://www.origins.net/nwiwelcome.aspx.  As heatherjulie has shown they would appear to have been proven at Chester, Origins does provide online ordering facility for copies of Chester Wills which you can then view immediately (and save a copy) on their website, and while I appreciate it would cost you £8 for a 72 hour subscription to order them, you may find you can order them if they do appear in their index.  Unfortunately my origins subscription expired earlier this weeks so I can't check to see if they are available to purchase through Origins as I am not renewing currently.

[andycand]

Hi

The area in question would have been, at that time, in the Diocese of Chester, and the wills would have held at the Chester Archives which I believe is also the Diocese Archive. I think the information from heatherjulie is from an old publication and the wills were at Chester at that time. I know that as the Diocese boundary changed some records were transferred from Chester to more relevant Archives which would explain why the wills are now at the Lancashire Record Office. The area in question was never in Cheshire, I suspect that because Chester is mentioned Ancestry have added Cheshire as the county.

It is a pity that the wills are not at Chester as Cheshire wills can be either be ordered online using a credit card for 4 GBP + postage, or they can be viewed on Findmypast

Andy

[Pennines]

If they are at Lancashire you can definitely order on line via Origins.net using a credit card. It is really easy -- honestly!

The problem for someone doing a look up is often the size of these wills -- they can be on very large sheets of paper. There would be no way they could be transferred to you by a normal scanning and email process. They may have to be done in pieces.

I know they are not all the size of some I have received -- but when they are -- it's a bit of a pain.