Court of the Bishop of Hereford (Episcopal Consistory)

England Herefordshire  Herefordshire Probate Records, Oxfordshire Probate Records, Worcestershire Probate Records

Step By Step
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 the "Probate Records of This Court" (below) to determine what original probate records exist for this court. 3. Contact or visit the Herefordshire 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.

Indexes
The original and microfilmed records include indexes.

In addition, the Family History Library has film copies of the following:


 * Probate indexes and abstracts, 1662-1858
 * Episcopal Consistory Court of the Bishop of Hereford - Calendar of wills, 1700-1802


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Archive Locations
The original records are deposited at the Herefordshire Archives in Hereford.

Archive Records
They include:


 * Original wills, administrations, and inventories, 1520-1539 (with a few earlier), 1540-1858
 * Register copy wills, 1663-1858
 * Various act books, 1445-1835, 1587-1686, 1662/3-1858
 * Tuition bonds, 1673-1792

Family History Library Records
Records have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and through the many family history centers world-wide. They include:


 * Original wills, administrations and inventories for the Diocese of Hereford, 1517-1858. Includes registered wills with indexes in each volume.
 * Acts of office, 1407-1831 consist of all acts by the archdeacon. They are not all probate records.

Jurisdiction
This court had jurisdiction over Herefordshire expect the following:


 * Eight parishes in the Court of the Archdeaconry of Brecon
 * The city of Hereford and twenty-five parishes in the jurisdiction of the Consistory Court of the Dean of Hereford
 * And the peculiar prebends of Little Hereford, Upper Bullinghope or Upper Bullingham, andMoreton Magna or Moreton-upon-Lugg.

Before 1541, when the Diocese of Gloucester was formed, the western portion of Gloucestershire beyond the rivers Severn and Leaden was in the Diocese of Hereford, and there are consequently a few Gloucestershire wills in this court prior to 1541.

This court also had jurisdiction over these parishes in Worcestershire: