Kent Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1801-1810

Description

The Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) had superior jurisdiction for probate purposes over the south of England from the 14th century until it, and all the other church courts, were abolished in January 1858 and the Principal Probate Registry was founded. The PCC dealt with the grants of probate of wills and letters of administration (admons) of the estates of intestates of those who had goods worth more than £5 which lay in more than one Diocese, by those in the Army and Royal Navy, by other seamen, those dying at sea and abroad and, more broadly, by the better-off. There are indexes to PCC admons up to 1800, some published, some available only in the National Archives searchroom on the first floor at Kew. From 1801-1858 there are no indexes other than the manuscript indexes for each year and it is that gap that this series of volumes for Kent, of which this is the first, is planned to fill. 

 Bear in mind that in the period in question the county of Kent covered parts of the areas which now come under London Boroughs and many people in this book came from, or died at, Deptford, Greenwich, Woolwich, Plumstead and Lewisham. For their relatives it was a short trip to Doctors’ Commons to take out letters of administration of the estate.

 In this volume are listed 1729 admons for 1692 people whose abode or place if death in the Admon Act books was recorded as Kent and which were dealt with by the PCC between 1 January 1801 and 31 December 1810. There are more admons than people because some people had more than one admon granted during this period. This was done when the original administrator did not complete dealing with the estate, usually due to their own death, and a further grant, or grants, was made to someone else/other people. The dates of such additional or former grants are indicated in this publication. The National Archives references given here are to all grants for the same person.

 In the 10 years covered by this volume there were 31 limited admons for Kent people, that is, limited to part of their estate. Comprising under 2% of the total number of admons, it is evident that limited admons were not common, but they can be extremely detailed and informative and hark back to individuals who died a long time before and recite property deeds which may not have survived to the present day. Limited admons were annotated with references to further grants of administration, in the same way as the PROB 6 Admon Act Books were. 

The basic details in this volume have been taken from the National Archives’ original annual manuscript calendars of admons, reference PROB 12. These calendars are currently located on open shelves on floor 1 of the National Archives, where a Reader’s Ticket is not required. They are arranged by annual volumes and within each volume by initial letter of surname, then chronologically by month. The county is given in each case and all those with ‘Kent’ marked by them are included in this volume. 

 Very few parishes of residence are given in the calendars, only Canterbury, Rochester and sometimes when referring to seamen. However, the original PROB 6 entries will state where the person resided or died, and in some cases up to two previous places of residence plus the current place/place of death were named. All this information is noted in this book.

 A considerable amount of further research into the intestates listed here has been undertaken and many burials have been identified, both in Kent and outside Kent. Burial entries are quoted verbatim, in italics.

 In addition, in many cases the relevant PROB 6 Act book has been consulted and all the detail available from each entry included. Apart from place of death and a wealth of information on occupation and relatives, we can learn the upper value of the deceased’s estate. Of those entries I have looked at so far the values range from the minimum which the PCC dealt with, £5, up to £25,000.   Where occupations of the deceased are given in the burial registers and PROB 6, they range widely - from labourer to Lords and Ladies. 

 Where further information is given after some entries, it has been taken from the appropriate burial register and/or headstones, newspapers, documents at the National Archives and elsewhere and reputable websites. 

 There were a number of married and unmarried women. The ‘formerly’ surnames given in many womens’ entries turn out to be the woman’s previous surname, mostly the maiden surname of a married woman but, if the woman was a widow who had remarried, her previous husband’s surname. Sometimes maiden surname, first married surname and current married surname are all given. However, the maiden surname of not all married women or widows is given in the PROB 6 record. These quoted maiden surnames will be very useful in family history research if a marriage cannot be found or there is a choice between several marriages of people with common names. 

Surprisingly, administration of the estates of minors are included, the youngest being 11 years old.  Those for whom administration was granted ranged widely in age, from 11 years, upwards.  

 Admon of the estates of a number of seamen and soldiers feature, with the name/s of ships on which they served given. ‘Ships’ could include men on fishing smacks, customs ships, merchant ships, including those owned by the East India Company, and those serving in the Royal Navy. No less than 232 ships are named in all, with several men coming from a number of them. There is a separate index of named ships.

 Quite a number of those listed turn out to be related – husband and wife; father and son; brothers; two daughters and their father; sisters; grandmother, grandfather and grand-daughter.  

 Time between burial and grant of admon ranges between five days and 90 years. There might be an even longer period between the first and second, or subsequent, grants of administration, in one case 83 years. Of course, this continued after 1810. For example, one admon granted in 1805, was still being dealt with as late as 1863. 

 This book therefore illustrates the importance of checking for admons for many years after the decease of the person/s of interest. Wills are often used in family history research but admons are an under-used, though important, resource.

 Work on the individuals listed is still ongoing with further PROB 6 details to be added in due course. In addition, at least half a dozen articles on various subjects arising from this research are forthcoming. Purchasers of this volume can request to be sent free updates and for any articles of interest to be forwarded to them when they are published.   

247 pages, comprising Introduction; Abbreviations; Further Reading; Alphabetical Index of intestates; Index of ships; index of Army, Militia and other Regiments; Index of Stray names.