Prerogative Court of Canterbury and successors: Limited Administration Act Books

PROB 7

1810-1858

Administration acts limited to a particular part of the intestate's estate. References to later grants of administration made upon estates subjected to limited administration acts issued by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury during the years that the limited administration act books were in use were added to these act books after the abolition of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in 1858.

After the abolition of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in 1858, the limited administration act books in were transferred to the custody of the registry of the Court of Probate, and then, in 1874, to the Principal Probate Registry of the High Court of Justice.

During this period they continued to be annotated as a matter of routine with references to further grants of administration made upon estates subjected to limited administration acts issued by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury during the period 1810 to 1858.

Some of the annotations were inserted for antiquarian purposes rather than for administrative purposes.

The act books in PROB 7 are divided into five sections and then each section is subdivided into twelve monthly subsections.

The limited administration act books for the period 1821 to 1843 (PROB 7/12-57) were bound in two volumes with the first volume containing the acts issued by the registrar's seat, the Surrey seat, and usually the Welsh seat. The other seats' acts were entered in the second volume.

At the beginning of a seat's section in the act books the name of the seat is not usually given. Rather the name of the clerk who held the seat at the time is supplied. The only exception to this is the registrar's seat which is styled as such in the act books (albeit usually in the abbreviated form Regrs). The names of the different clerks of the seats are given in the key that accompanies the PROB 6 series list and this key can therefore be used to identify the different seats in the limited administration act books.

Public Record(s)

English

71 volume(s)

Open

In 1970 Supreme Court of Judicature

Topics

Wills and probate

Prior to 1810 limited administration acts issued by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury were recorded in the ordinary administration act books. In 1810 the registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury began to record limited administration acts in a separate series of act books. These limited administration act books survive in unbroken series from 1810 to the abolition of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in 1858. Where the term entered at length appears alongside the name of an intestate in an administration act book in PROB 6 for the period 1810 to 1858 this means that the act will be found entered in the corresponding limited administration act book in PROB 7