Catalogue description Western Deaneries of the Archdeaconry of Richmond

Other related material for the Western Deaneries is held at Lancashire Record Office (such as Act books etc). Printed Indexes for Furness, Amounderness and the Lancashire parts of Kendal and Lonsdale were produced by the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (vols. 10, 13, 23, 66, 99 and 105) which are available at Lancashire Record Office and main reference libraries.

Access is unrestricted, except where the condition of the originals makes them too fragile to produce

Before the creation of the Diocese of Chester in 1541, the area north of the Ribble was in the Diocese of York, but few wills survive from before this date. The archdeaconry of Richmond comprised 8 deaneries - three forming the Eastern Deaneries ( Boroughbridge, Catterick and Richmond) and 5 the Western Deaneries (Amounderness, Lonsdale, Kendal, Furness and Copeland) which contained Lancashire North of the river Ribble and parts of Cumberland, Westmoreland and Yorkshire. Although contents of this catalogue are generally referred to as Wills, there are also other types of documents such as letters of administration and inventories.Therefore, in some ways they are more accurately described as probate documents.