Court of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury

England Suffolk  Suffolk Probate Records, Cambridgeshire Probate Records

To read a general explanation of probates in England, click here. Click to read a definition of archdeaconry.

Step by Step
1. First search each index (see below) to help you more quickly find the will, writing down each detail cited in the indexed entry. 2. Proceed to the "Records" (below) to determine what probate records exist for this court. Also see "Family History Library Records." 3. Contact or visit the Suffolk 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 Family History Library has copies of the following indexes.


 * Index to noted wills &amp; administrations
 * Indexes, 1520-1857
 * An index to wills, administrations and other testamentary records registered in monastic or commissary courts of Bury S. Edmunds or the Archdeaconry Court of Sudbury, Suffolk compiled by T.K. Crossfield
 * Calendar of wills, 1354-1535, complied by Vincent Burrough Redstone.

Archive Location
The original records for this court are housed at the Suffolk Record Office - Bury St. Edmunds.

Archive Records:

 * Original wills, 1424-1652, 1660-1857
 * Register copy wills, 1439-1652/3, 1660-1857
 * Administrations, 1660-1857 (with minor gaps)
 * Admon act books, 1544-1546, 1568-1573, 1577-1593, 1605-1612, 1630-1652/3, 1660-1858
 * Inventories, 1573-1576, 1617, 1625, 1640, 1650, 1652, 1660-1747

Family History Library Records
Films can be view in the library or in a family history center.


 * Original wills, 1429-1857; misc. papers including probate inventories, ca. 1734-1858; act books, 1577-1596, 1842-1858
 * Probate records, 1354-1857; indexes, 1520-1857; probate inventories, 1573-1817
 * Wills and inventories from the registers of the commissary of Bury St. Edmunds and the archdeacon of Sudbury
 * The wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury

Suffolk
This court had jurisdiction over West Suffolk with the addition of Stow and Hartismere Deaneries in East Suffolk (to 1837 only).

A list of parishes in the Archdeaconry in 1837 is given in S. Tymms' Wills and Inventories from the Registers of the Commissary of Bury St. Edmunds and the Archdeaconry of Sudbury published in the Old Series by the Camden Society.

Cambridgeshire
It had jurisdiction over those parishes under the authority of the Court of the Bishop (Episcopal Consistory) of Norwich, namely:

Also, after 1837 only (when the Archdeaconry of Sudbury was transferred to the Diocese of Ely), the Cambridgeshire parishes in the Deanery of Camps, namely: