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Wills - Prerogative Court of Canterbury
This list of Hulley - and variant spellings - wills
and administrations from this source was obtained in 1992-3 from
the Public Record Office when it was located at Chancery Lane, London.
Wills
and Administrations 1383-1857 - List
Wills held at Public Record Office, London - Summaries
About the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
Wills have been proved in the Prerogative Court
of Canterbury (PCC) since 1383 and are now preserved in the Public
Record Office, London.
By 1750 the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop
Canterbury was proving Wills and granting Administrations at a rate
of about 7,000 a year, and this number had grown to about 12,000
a year by 1800.
It was the supreme church court in the British Isles
for the probate of wills, and because of the great prestige of its
acts and the greater safety of its records it had attracted the probate
of wills of men of substance at least since the Reformation.
The Bank of England acknowledged no probate other
than of this court, and the wills of persons who died abroad possessing
property in this country were almost invariably proved at Canterbury.
Because of this the PCC wills include copies of those of numerous
Irish and colonial persons who had a second probate at the PCC and
whose wills have not survived in their own countries. Particularly
in the period under consideration, thousands of bi-national Hollanders
and other Europeans who had invested money in the British funds (again
whose wills may not have survived or be easily accessible in their
own countries) had their wills proven by the PCC.
The Bank of England did accept wills proved in other
courts before 1812, but after that date it demanded PCC wills only.
The PCC was also the 'local court' for those possessing
property in more than two dioceses in the Province of Canterbury
and thus contains the wills of a great number of people in the south
of England and particularly in the Home Counties (excepting Kent
- see below), as also for those who had property in both the provinces
of Canterbury and York.
In Kent the Archbishop of Canterbury delegated his
powers to his commissary general, but this does not mean that no
Kent entries are to be found in the PCC - though rare, they do appear.
Source: English Origins
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Wills
