High Court of Delegates

Return to England.

Description
Probate is the legal court process by which the estate of a deceased person is distributed to his or her heirs. The term probate refers to a collection of documents, including wills, administrations (also called admons), inventories, and act books. The Church of England ecclesiastical courts had authority for this process until to 1858.

Step By Step
As the last court of appeals, this court should be searched last after all other courts. In many cases, a reference to a will that went through the Court of Delegates will also have been found in one of the Provincial or Chancery courts. See the Indexes and Jurisdiction sections below.

1. First search each index (see below) to help you more quickly find the will or administration (admon), writing down each detail cited in the indexed entry. 2. Proceed to "Records" (below) to determine what probate records exist for this court. 3. Contact or visit the Record Office or, hire a professional record searcher to view these records on your behalf. Officials may send upon request a list of record searchers. 4. Visit The Family History Library or, one of its 4,500 satellite family history centers worldwide and search indexes to probate records; then with the information obtained from the index[es] you can search more quickly the original wills and admons also on microfilm via any centers near you.

Printed and Published Indexes
The Genealogist magazine has published an index to the wills handled by this court in volumes 11 (pages 165-171, 224-227) and 12 (pages 97-101) covering the years 1651-1857. (See the reference below.) Not that many wills went to the highest court in over 200 years -- only about 325 total.

Archive Location
Originals held at The National Archives of the UK at Kew.

Archive Records
Add information.

Family History Library Records
Original wills, etc., 1662-1837, on microfilm at the Family History Library.

Jurisdiction
The Court of Delegates, or High Court of Delegates, was a court of appeals from the Court of Arches (Province of Canterbury) and the Court of Chancery (Province of York), including their peculiars, royal peculiars, and the Irish probate courts. "It was so called because the Judges were delegated for each particular case... The High Court of Delegates was abolished in 1832 when the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was established  ...Wills [continued to be] proved before the latter body until the creation of the Court of Probate [1857]."