It has been estimated, by comparing wills with parish registers, that at most only 25% of potential testators left wills, and in some places the figure is as low as 10%. Generally speaking, where there was very little to leave, and no inheritance disputes were likely, wills were either not made, or not registered. Conversely, the very wealthy, or those who owned property in more than one diocese, may not have registered their wills at any of the Diocese of Salisbury probate courts. Staff can advise where to look for such wills.
During the Commonwealth period (1650-1660) wills were registered, if at all, in a special court in London. These wills are held by the Family Records Centre.
It is an unfortunate fact that some wills are simply lost, whether through accident, neglect or misplacement, at some point in their custodial history. Sometimes there is direct evidence of this in the supporting documents which do survive, sometimes it can only be inferred. As you might expect, survival is patchy in the early to mid 16th century, and gradually improves thereafter.
Some collections may not yet be on the on-line catalogue. See the Access to Archives catalogue for collections not yet available via the Wiltshire County Council website. However, it is important to remember that some classes of record may contain a lot of information which is not indexed or included in a catalogue description. For example, local newspapers are a goldmine for local and family history, but the catalogue entries will not index them in depth and will merely state the name of the newspaper and its date. Before you assume that the lack of a result from an on-line search means the information itself does not exist please contact usfor help and advice on how to continue your research. You are also very welcome to visit the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives to pursue your research in person
You will find most personal name indexing for individual records has been done for the wills. It is most likely to be the name of the person making their will, but it could also include the names of other individuals mentioned in a probate record such as children mentioned in a tuition bond. The data has been input in the format surname, forename. Other types of record are likely to be indexed at collection level only, so the personal name may relate to an entire family, eg Noel family, Earls of Gainsborough.
Be aware of particular problems, such as the West Country tendency to use Z and S interchangeably, as in Zellwood/Sellwood. Some names can begin with either C or K, such as Karswell/Carswell, and others with either Ph or F (Fildew/Phildew); other examples are Roughton/Wroughton, Hooper/Whooper and Oram/Worm!
You will sometimes see a surname with an “s” on the end, which stands out from a group of others which are identical except for this extra letter, e.g. one person called Brownings, and a dozen or so called Browning. If they are all living in the same place, it seems likely that “Brownings” is a mistake. There are three possibilities: firstly, some families seem to have used either form indiscriminately; secondly, the scribe may have made a mistake, and thirdly, archive staff may have misinterpreted the name; if there is only an inventory, for example, the wording is usually “an inventory of all the goods (etc) of Thomas Brownings” – and it is impossible, at the time of cataloguing, to know if the final “s” is the possessive case, or part of the actual surname.
For the wills, the spelling of forenames has been standardised as far as possible, to assist searching. Some names can only be reduced to two variants, though, such as Elinor/Eleanor or Geoffrey/Jeffrey, and others cannot be identified with either a contempory or a modern equivalent, so have been left as written. Helpful notes have been added in the case of ambiguous or confusing names: in the 16th and much of the 17th century, Denis, Philip, Michael and occasionally Olive were used for both men and women, so the sex of the deceased has been noted, where helpful. Christian is used exclusively as a woman’s name. Jean is sometimes given as a woman’s name, and has been left as written, but it is almost always a phonetic spelling of Jane. Annis and Raffe/Rafe are the usual vernacular forms of Agnes and Ralph. Some formerly common names are obsolete now (e.g. Parnel/Pernel, an old form of Petronella, and Anstice, from Anastasia). Please contact the Archive service for help with puzzling names . Remember that names may be latinised in some documents, e.g. administration bonds. For advice on what to do when you cannot find the information you require see our help text.
This field has been used for the wills only. Occupations have usually been recorded as given, although spelling has been modernised. You will need to check (for instance) cordwainers as well as shoemakers, bootmakers and heelmakers if this is the sort of trade you are interested in. Women are rarely ascribed an occupation, but their status is often given (e.g. widow, wife, spinster). If an occupation or status is not stated, but can be inferred, it has been given in brackets: [blacksmith]. For more information about the definition of occupations mentioned in records see: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Occupations.html. For advice on what to do when you cannot find the information you require see our help text.
Subject indexing has not been used for the wills. It has been used at item level for many other collections. Please click on the drop down list of terms to choose the search term to use. Please note however that not all archives are indexed. For advice on what to do when you cannot find the information you require see our help text.
Searching on any text field is a powerful way to search the archive database, as it will search on many different fields at the same time. These fields include title, description, administrative history, and custodial history, amongst others.
It is important to avoid being too specific in order to search successfully. For example, you will not find anything if you look up “will of John Smith” because it is not catalogued in that manner. The name “Smith, John” should be looked up under Who?, and the title left blank. There might be no will as such, but there could be other types of probate record such as inventory, administration bond, etc. See the glossary for definitions of terms used.
For advice on what to do when you cannot find the information you require see our help text.
For the wills, the catalogue gives only year dates, not days or months, and new style dating has been used throughout (See the glossary). Uncertain dates are followed by a question mark. The date given is, wherever possible, the year of probate. This may be later than the year the person died – sometimes probate was a drawn-out process. If the date of probate is not known, then the date of the will itself is given, usually in brackets, e.g. [1597]. In the 16th and 17th centuries, with a few noted exceptions, wills are usually made very soon before death, but by the 19th century they may be made several years earlier. If no date of probate is given, we can only give the date the will was made, which, to repeat, may not accord with the date of death. It is important to be aware of these possibilities when searching for wills, and not to reject out of hand those which do not have precisely the expected date.
It is not currently possible to type in a period name like Tudor or Stuart, and get results.
For advice on what to do when you cannot find the information you require see our help text.
Introduction The place is based on an authority file, or controlled list, containing (from the most detailed level upwards) farm or house name; hamlet; ecclesiastical parish name; town/village; and county. It is possible to get the exact terms used in this controlled list by clicking on ‘see list’ and then typing in part of a name followed by an asterisk and then clicking on the ‘lookup’ box. If you do not know a place name have a look at: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/ for details of Wiltshire parishes . To get an idea of where a place is in relation to the rest of Wiltshire, type the name of the place into www.multimap.co.uk. It is worth remembering that church and civil parish boundaries are different, and both have changed substantially over time, and continue to change. For example, Alvediston was a chapelry of Broad Chalke parish until 1861, when it became a parish in its own right, but was then abolished in 1970 to help create Ebbesborne Wake with Fifield Bavant and Alvediston. If you are unsure whether the place you are interested in may have changed, please consult the Archive Service. You may also like to look at http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/ to find out more information about a locality.
For advice on what to do when you cannot find the information you require see our help text.
If you are a regular user of Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, or have used the Access to Archives website to look up catalogues, you may already know which reference number to use.Alternatively, you may have learnt the number of a particular collection by looking at our on-line research guides: If this is the case, please type the reference number into this box. The reference number will usually be a four digit number, eg 3541, for the entire collection, or a number slash subnumber, eg 3541/15 for a particular item. However there are also alphanumeric reference numbers for our official collections (County Council, districts, schools, hospitals etc.) For example, A for Quarter Sessions; B for Petty Sessions and so on. If you do not know the exact reference it can help to type the beginning followed by an asterisk, eg 3541*.
Contact Details
Archive Service Contact Details
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
Cocklebury Road
Chippenham
SN15 3QN
Contact us by Email
Tel +44 (0)1249 705500
Fax +44 (0)1249 705527
History Centre Contact Details
Contact by Email
Tel +44 (0)1249 705500
Fax +44 (0)1249 705527
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
Cocklebury Road
Chippenham
SN15 3QN
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