I’d be most grateful for some expert advice from forum users with knowledge of mid 19th century Irish legal matters. Just recently I’ve received invaluable help in deciphering some papers relating to an ancestor’s will. My ancestor, Henry Page, died in London in 1851, and probate was granted on his estate by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. However, he had Irish assets, and Probate was obtained two years after his death in an Irish ecclesiastical court (most probably, I suppose, the Prerogative Court of Armagh, operating in Dublin). The papers give a date when the Irish court granted probate –– 12 February 1853.
First question – would my ancestor have needed to make a separate will to gain Irish probate, or would his will have been forwarded after its proof in England?
Second question – I realise that many records were destroyed by fire in 1922, but is there a straightforward way to determine whether any details survive of my ancestor’s will as it relates to his assets in Ireland?
NEXT ISSUE. In these newly deciphered papers is a note which reads in part: ‘Irish inventory / Balance due on judgement against Marquis of Headfort’ followed by a figure which could be 1300 or 1500. I realise that the court proceedings between my ancestor and the Marquis may have been conducted either in Ireland or in England (presumably in a Court of Chancery). If the matter came to an Irish court, I’d like to know how to go about finding the relevant record, which may tell me what connected Henry Page and the Marquis of Headfort.
For any help, advice, etc in an area of research quite new to me, I will indeed be most grateful
