Welsh Probate Records, Diocese of Bangor

31,689 original wills, inventories, administration bonds and miscellaneous other probate records, 1576-1858 (majority dated 1635-1648, 1660-1858), from parishes in Anglesey, most of Caernarfonshire, Merionethshire, and parts of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire; 3 vols register copy wills and administrations, 1790, 1851-1858. The group also includes a number of documents from parishes which were normally within the Diocese of St Asaph and a few stray items from elsewhere in Wales, England and Ireland.

Divided into original probate records arranged chronologically within the diocese, and further sub-divided by county, parish and surname; and register copy wills and administrations arranged chronologically by volume

<p>Register copy wills of the District Probate Registry of Bangor, 1858-1941, are held by NLW and by the Principal Registry of the Family Division, London. Some wills and administrations are included in the consistory court papers filed with the diocesan records of the Church in Wales, held at NLW. Other sources of probate records from Wales are the records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) and those of the Court of Civil Commission, available for consultation at the National Archives, Kew</p>

Usual copyright laws apply

Public records. Some items unfit for production

Mainly English, some Welsh, small proportion of Latin pre-1733

Deposited by Bangor District Probate Registry in 1945

In 1858 the earlier probate records from the Consistory Court were transferred to the District Probate Registry at Bangor. They were conveyed thence to the National Library of Wales in 1945, in accordance with the Direction of the President of the Probate Division of the High Court of Justice

All records have been retained

In England and Wales prior to 12 January 1858, wills were proved and letters of administration granted in ecclesiastical courts, each having its own area of jurisdiction. Which court had jurisdiction in a particular case depended mainly on the place of death and the extent and location of the deceased's estate. The Consistory Court of Bangor was responsible for probate and administration in the counties of Anglesey, Caernarfon (except for a small number of parishes which were in the Diocese of St Asaph), Merioneth (except for thirteen parishes under the jurisdiction of the Consistory Court of St Asaph), the Deanery of Dyffryn Clwyd in Denbighshire and the Deanery of Arwystli in Montgomeryshire. It is apparent that for probate purposes this court sometimes administered the parishes of Ysbyty Ifan and Llanrwst in Denbighshire, both of which which normally came under the jurisdiction of the Consistory Court of St Asaph. From 1648 the Consistory Court of Bangor ceased to function and during the Commonwealth, 1653-1660, probate in England and Wales was undertaken by the Court of Civil Commission in London. After the Restoration probate business reverted to the jurisdiction of the church courts. In 1858 the responsiblity for probate was transferred from the ecclesiastical courts to a simpler system of civil probate registries.