Bonds from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury entered into by administrators and administrators with will annexed. They supply the place of residence of administrators and administrators with will annexed, and the names and places of residence of their sureties. They also supply an approximate valuation of the intestate's or testator's personal estate.
The bonds also bear the signatures (or marks of authentication) of the administrators and of the sureties, and their personal seals.
When administrators with will annexed were sworn by commission the commissions authorising the commissioners to administer the oath were printed on the same membrane or paper as the bonds, and these records are to be found found in this series.
Also contains some commissions to swear executors for 1786 to 1795 and for January 1858 and these are usually bundled with the administration bonds, though they occasionally form separate bundles.
The amount that the bond was for is generally assumed to have been twice the initial approximate valuation of the personal estate. However a comparison of a small sample of bonds with the initial valuations given in the corresponding administration act book, and a study of revaluation orders, makes it clear that while bond penalties exceeded the amount of the initial valuation, they were not always equal to twice the initial valuation of the personal estate. As evidence of the valuation of an intestate's or testator's personal estate bonds are therefore an imprecise measure, and where other sources such as inventories, executors' and administrators' accounts, and death duty registers, are extant they should be preferred. If an estate was revalued, a not uncommon occurrence in the nineteenth century, the administrator would be required to enter into a second bond. The second bond would then be filed with the original one.
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