London Probate Jurisdictions Parishes A-F

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.

Before 1858, every parish was under the probate jurisdiction of a primary court and several secondary courts. Here is an alphabetical list of London city parishes beginning with A through F and the probate courts that had jurisdiction over them. Click on the link for the letter that a parish name begins with.

1. Find the place where your ancestor lived in the first column. 2. Click on the court name in the second column to learn where to find the records and indexes. 3. Click on each name of the court in the third column if the record isn't found in the first court. 4. Search last the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

If no will is found, your ancestor may not have left one.

Post-1857 Probate Records
Beginning in 1858, the government took over the settlement of estates and all wills are now probated through the Principal Probate Registry system. The system consists of 11 district registry offices and 18 sub-district registries, located throughout England and Wales, and the principal registry office located in London. The records are available through the office of Her Majesty's Courts Service. To learn more, go to the HMCS website.

A country-wide surname index to the records is available, so it is much easier to look for post-1857 wills. The for 1858-1957 and the records for the  and the  for 1858-1925 are available on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library.