Hi majm
Good to meet a fellow Australian on Roots Chat, I'm from Brisbane. It has been raining here for more than 3 weeks. Has Sydney been the same. Typical Australian weather; Dought, bush fires and flooding rain.
You make an interesting point, but I think it is just misleading info on Wikipedia. On this page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire Wikipedia states 'Yorkshire (/ˈjɔːrkʃər, -ʃɪər/; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York.
This is what I understand of the situation.
Yorkshire has been know as Yorkshire since just after the Norman invasion, about 1000 years.
Untill 1974, it was made-up of three Ridings, each being an administrative county, plus a 4th county - The County of York.
The County of York was also the City of York and I think it was the administrative capital of Yorkshire.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/city-of-yorkThe City of York is no longer a separate county but is within North Yorkshire, but I don't know if that happened in 1974.
Until 1858, wills and probates were administrated by the bishops in the relevant Diocese of the testator in the probate court of the relevant Archdiocese. So they were episcopal records and the government didn't have much to do with the administration of probates. Wills and probates were held by the church and stored at the relevant Archdiocese.
I have pre-1858 wills from Saddleworth and Halifax which were both parishes in the West Riding of Yorkshire. These were were administered, respectively, by the Archdiocese of Chester and the Archdiocese of Pontefract.
The wills range between the years 1676 and 1806.
My confusion is:
All the testators start their wills with the declaration:
'I 'Joe Bloggs' Yeoman of Saddleworth/Halifax in the
County of York do...'
So my question is, why do they say the County of York rather than Yorkshire.