Catalogue description Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Exhibits: Volumes

The pieces have been arranged into four main sections. Pieces within each section are arranged chronologically, as are items within each piece:

PROB 49/1-28 are arranged according to the cause in which they exhibited, or if this can not be determined, by the owner of the account book. All account books relating to the same cause are grouped together as items wherever this can be determined, and are listed chronologically. The pieces are arranged chronologically according to the dates of compilation of the account books, and not according to the date of the cause.

PROB 49/29-32 are arranged chronologically as far as possible, according to the dates of compilation of the writings in each piece.

PROB 49/33-37 are listed chronologically according to the approximate date at which each was printed.

PROB 49/38-51 are miscellaneous exhibits, and are listed chronologically according to content, with two undated pieces placed at the end.

From January 1722 to 1858 the registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury assigned running numbers to documentary exhibits and kept them in bundles by date of exhibition. A new sequence of numbers was begun in January of each year. Each of the documents was endorsed with its registry number, the name of the testator or intestate to whose estate it related, an identification of the type of document, and the date that it was exhibited. The exhibits were registered in the indexes that now comprise PROB 33/2-36. A few of the exhibits in PROB 49 have been treated in this way, and their registry numbers appears in the Registry No column of the series list. Other numbers and/or letters appear on documents in this series, and these do not refer to the PROB 33 registry system.

The exhibits in this series were probably filed separately on account of their large size. Evidence for this can be found in the index entry in PROB 33/27 for the cause in 1833 relating to B Mardon. The exhibit (PROB 49/14) comprising a volume of vouchers is stated as being very bulky and as being filed separately. Likewise many of the volumes in PROB 49 may not have been assigned any registry numbers at all because of their unusual size and format.