Catalogue description Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Commission Books

The two earliest commission books (PROB 17/1 and PROB 17/6/1) are arranged in chronological order by by the month of the issue of the commission. They record in Latin the name of the person whose oath had to be taken, his or her relationship to the intestate if the commission was to swear an administrator, and the name and place of residence of the testator or intestate.

PROB 17/1 and PROB 17/6/1 additionally identify the name of the proctor acting for the executor or administrator in question, and in many instances they supply the date of death, although often only approximately, of the testator or intestate. Information on dates of death of testators cannot be routinely found in any other series of Prerogative Court of Canterbury records of this period, and is not recorded in the warrants to issue commissions to swear executors until the mid eighteenth century. The information is however often given in earlier warrants to issue letters of administration.

At some point in the eighteenth century the organisation of the commission books was extensively revised, because the next surviving commission books, those for 1784 (PROB 17/7/1 and PROB 17/8/1), are in a completely different format to the two surviving earliest ones (PROB 17/1 and PROB 17/6/1). Commission books for the years 1784 to 1857 are organised like annual indexes with the names of the testators and intestates sorted by initial letter of surname. For each year there is one volume for testators and intestates whose surnames began with the letters A to K, and one for those beginning with the letters L to Z.

From 1801 (PROB 17/41) an additional book was maintained for commissions relating to soldiers, seamen, and warrant and petty officers, including East India Company soldiers and sailors, and merchant seamen, who died overseas and at sea. Commissions relating to these testators and intestates were not generally entered in the ordinary commission books. All of these commission books are bound in green.

The eighteenth and nineteenth century commission books (PROB 17/6/2 - PROB 17/185) generally supply only the date of the commission, the name of the testator or intestate, his or her county of residence, or in the case of sailors and soldiers the name of the ship on or the regiment in which the sailor or soldier served, and the type of commission or requisition.

From the eighteenth century, and perhaps earlier, commissions and requisitions to swear administrators and administrators with will annexed were written or printed on the same membrane of parchment or piece of paper as the court's copies of the bonds that administrators and administrators with will annexed were required to enter into with the Archbishop of Canterbury for the proper administration and distribution of the estate in question.

The following abbreviations are used for different types of commissions and requisitions:

• CA= commission to swear administrator
• CAW= commission to swear administrator with will annexed
• CAW= de bo commission to swear administrator with will annexed de bonis non administratis
• CW =commission to swear executor
• RA= requisition to swear administrator
• RAW =requisition to swear administrator with will annexed
• RAW= de bo requisition to swear administrator with will annexed de bonis non administratis
• RW= requisition to swear executor

These abbreviations are often followed by the letters clr, which appear to stand for clear.

An executor seeking a grant of probate from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury was required to swear an oath that the document exhibited as the testator's will was authentic, and that he or she would perform the duties of an executor, paying the testator's debts and legacies, making an inventory of the testator's personal estate, and, if required, producing an account of his or her administration of the estate. Similarly a person seeking letters of administration of the estate of an intestate had to take an oath to produce an inventory and an account, and from 1672 to distribute the estate in accordance with the terms of the Act for the better settling of intestates' estates (22 & 23 Charles II, c10).

If the executor or aspirant administrator was unable to come to London the court would issue a commission so that the oath could be sworn near the executor's or aspirant administrator's place of residence. In such circumstances there might be an interval of a month or more between the issue of the commission and the subsequent issue of the grant of probate or administration. If the executor or aspirant administrator lived within the province of Canterbury the commission would be addressed to one or more clerics of the province. If the executor or aspirant administrator lived outside the province of Canterbury it would be addressed to the bishop of the relevant diocese, within the Anglican communion, or to an appropriate civil official. Commissions addressed outside the province are more properly known as requisitions.

If an executor or administrator was sworn by commission this fact is recorded in the probate or administration act appointing him or her.

When commissions and requisitions were issued by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury a record of the issue was made in a commission book. After 1701 there are no surviving commission books until those for 1784, from which date they survive in unbroken sequence to the abolition of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in January 1858. The missing commission books covering the years 1698 to 1783 were probably missing by 1832, because in that year officials of the Court reported to a royal commission that the commission books began in 1784.

After an executor had sworn his or her oath the commission or requisition was annotated by the commissioner, and returned to the Prerogative Court of Canterbury so that the grant of probate could proceed. The commissions and requisitions to swear executors were then filed or bundled by month of probate.