Probate act books of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and related jurisdictions from 1526 to the abolition of the Court in 1858.
The information that the probate act books usually supply is as follows: the date of the grant of probate or administration with will annexed, the name of the testator, his or her parish of residence, the name of the executor or administrator with will annexed, the relationship of the administrator with will annexed to the testator, and the date by which an inventory of the testator's estate had to be exhibited.
The probate act books do not ordinarily give the complete texts of individual probate acts and letters of administration with will annexed (except with limited grants of probate). Instead they record the information unique to individual acts.
If pertinent to the grants the entries in the probate act books may also give information about the marital status and occupations of the testator and executor, or administrator with will annexed, and about the place of death of the testator.
Information about testators' occupations and places of residence becomes fuller with the passage of time, and by the nineteenth century probate act books often supply such additional details as the names of regiments in which the testators were serving, or the names of streets in which they were living at the times of their deaths.
Dates at which inventories had to be exhibited are given in the form of references to the days in the ecclesiastical calendar when the Prerogative Court of Canterbury sat. At a later date they are given in the form of a reference to the final day in the month six months after the grant was made.
The probate act books can also supply information about the financial value of the intestates' estates.
Entries for letters of administration with will annexed will generally also record the renunciations of any executors named in the will or persons with a superior claim to the estate to the appointed administrator.
The probate 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.
References to later grants of probate and of administration with will annexed on the same estates were added to the probate act books after the abolition of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Some of the annotations were inserted for antiquarian purposes rather than for administrative purposes.