Record revealed
Jane Austen’s will
Explore Jane Austen's will, in her own handwriting, which shows how the novelist planned to share her belongings with family and friends after her death.
Series
Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Wills of Selected Famous Persons
Catalogue reference: PROB 1
What's it about?
PROB 1
The wills in this series were removed from their positions in the files of original wills, which now form the series PROB 10, on account of the celebrity of the testators. They include the wills of Drake, Shakespeare, and Nelson. Nelson's will is...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- PROB 1
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Title (The name of the record)
- Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Wills of Selected Famous Persons
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1552-1854
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Description (What the record is about)
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The wills in this series were removed from their positions in the files of original wills, which now form the series PROB 10, on account of the celebrity of the testators. They include the wills of Drake, Shakespeare, and Nelson. Nelson's will is accompanied by a private diary which he wrote in September and October 1805.
Some of the wills are accompanied by affidavits sworn by witnesses attesting their authenticity.
Some documents that are copies of original wills are identified as such. They have been identified either because they are annotated as copies, or because the signatures of witnesses and of the testator are in the same hands as the rest of the document. In the former cases it is clear that the originals were in the custody of the Court before the copies were made.
Digital copies of Famous wills 1552-1854 can be searched and downloaded.
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Arrangement (Information about the filing sequence or logical order of the record)
- Arrangement
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 105 papers and parchment membranes
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Available in digital format unless otherwise stated
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Litigation
- Wills and probate
- Diaries
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Custodial history (Describes where and how the record has been held from creation to transfer to The National Archives)
- The wills of Shakespeare and Nelson, along with twenty-six others also selected for the celebrity of the testators, were transferred to the Public Record Office in 1964, and form PROB 1/1-28. During the sorting and listing of the files of original wills in the Principal Probate Registry in the 1960s a further sixty-four wills of celebrated persons were identified and these were accessioned by the Public Record Office in 1972 as PROB 1/29-92. The Shakespeare wooden will box in PROB 1/4A was added to the series in February 2016.
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Unpublished finding aids (A note of unpublished indexes, lists or guides to the record)
- Printed personal name index.
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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After a will had been proved by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury a copy would generally be made and returned to the executor attached by a pendent seal to the probate act authorising the executor to administer the testator's estate in accordance with the terms of the will. The original will would be filed among the records of the Court, and if the executor paid a fee a further copy would be made in the will registers. In some cases however, particularly before the mid seventeenth century, the original will might be returned to the executor, and instead a copy would be filed with the original records of the court.
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Publication note(s) (A note of publications related to the record)
- For the Royal Commission on Public Records in 1913 see Second report of the Royal Commission on Public Records (Sessional Papers, House of Commons, Cd 7545, 1914), II, part 2, 137). For information relating to the identification of further wills of famous persons see A Stanley P.C.C. records at the Principal Probate Registry Archives, IX, no 42 (October 1970).
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C12112/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
1,265,632 records
Within the department: PROB
Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
You are currently looking at the series: PROB 1
Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Wills of Selected Famous Persons
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