Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory)

Return to the Lancashire Probate Records page.

Location of These Probate Records
Lancashire Record Office

Bow Lane

PRESTON

Lancashire PR1 2REUK

Tel: +44(0)1772 533039 Fax: +44(0) 1772 533050 Email: record.office@ed.lancscc.gov.uk

Their Website

Opening Times:

Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 8.30pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 10am - 5 pm Friday 9am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 4pm

Saturdays 2009 opening dates:  10 January                    8 August   14 February                 12 September   14 March                     10 October   18 April                        14 November     9 May                        12 December    13 June

11 July

Historical Background
Return to the Lancashire Probate Records page.

The whole of the county of Lancashire lay in the Diocese of Chester. However, the Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory) held jurisdiction only over those parishes in the southern portion of the county south of the River Ribble.

When a search of this courts’ probate records fails to provide the desired probate record, be sure to search the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury as well.

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Starting Your Search in Indexes
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 then&amp;nbsp;to the "Probate Records of This Court" section (see below) to determine what original probate records exist for this court.

3. Contact or visit the Lancashire Record Office to hire a professional record searcher to view these records on your behalf, citing information obtained from the index[es]. Officials may send upon request a list of record searchers.

4. You can also visit The Family History Library, or, one of its 4,500 satellite family history centers worldwide and search indexes (see the Family History Library's cataloged entries providing the microfilms so you can have them circulated to the center near you for searching the wills). The information obtained from the index[es] will help you more quickly search the wills and admons which can also&amp;nbsp;be circulated on microfilm via any family history.

Probate Indexes
Surviving wills and admons to the Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory) probate records have to some extent been indexed with the following ones:

Online Indexes
An online index is available covering nearly 250,000 wills for this court at no cost. It contains the names of the deceased as well the placename at time of the will or admon probate action. However, to find the will or admon on microfilm requires a dedicated search through the whole microfilm of wills as there's no page or folio numbers cited in the above index to lead the researcher directly to the will, quickly. The microfilms (of wills and admons) contain no index beyond the mere alphabetical arrangement by the first letter of the surname.

Printed and Published Indexes
Original will indexes 1545-1858 are available in print by both the Lancashire &amp; Cheshire Record Society and the Chetham Society. These two voluminous series containing numerous records for both Lancashire and Cheshire counties, contain helpful indexes to most of the wills and administrations for this major probate court jurisdiction for Lancashire. These volume series are often available at many major archives in the United Kingdom such as at the British Library, and Guildhall Library, London, and other like institutions. The Family History Library likewise has most all of these volumes in these series as follows:

The Lancashire &amp; Cheshire Record Society--
Volume 2: 1545-1620

Volume 4: 1621-1650

Volume 18: 1681-1700

Volume 20: 1701-1720

Volume 22: 1721-1740

Volume 25: 1741-1760

Volume 37: 1761-1780 (A-M)

Volume 38: 1761-1780 (N-Z)

Volume 44: 1781-1790

Volume 45: 1791-1800

Volume 62: 1801-1810 (A-L)

Volume 63: 1801-1810 (M-Z)

Volume 78: 1811-1820 (A-L)

Volume 79: 1811-1820 (M-Z)

Volume 107: 1821-1825

Volume 113: 1826-1830

Also:

Volume 2: Index of Enrollment Book Wills 1512-1635

Volume 4: Wills and Administrations for Lancashire and Cheshire during Interrugnum, 1650-1660

Volume 30: Abstracts of Wills not found in any Probate Registry 1301-1752

Volume 33: Probates formerly found in diocesan office registry, 1487-1620

Volume 43: Probates formerly found in diocesan office registry, 1621-1700

Volume 52: Probates formerly found in diocesan office registry, 1701-1800

Volume 52: Infra (Inferior court) Wills 1590-1665

Volume 63: Wills and Administrations (Admons) for the years 1670 and 1693

The Chetham Society--
Volume 37: Lancashire and Cheshire wills and inventories, 1563 to 1807, now preserved at Chester

Volume 3: Lancashire and Cheshire wills and inventories at Chester : with an appendix of abstracts of wills now lost or destroyed

Volume 33: List of Miscellaneous wills 1487-1800

Volume 51: List of Miscellaneous wills 1487-1800

Volume 54: List of Miscellaneous wills 1487-1800

Original Handwritten Indexes
Alphabetical Indexes to Supra wills 1816-1858 and Infra wills from 1819-1858.

Microfilmed Indexes at the Family History Library&lt;br&gt;
The indexes as listed in the above are also available&amp;nbsp;covering the years 1662-1810&amp;nbsp;at The Family History Library and they are on microfilm&amp;nbsp;and may be circulated&amp;nbsp;to each of its satellite Family History Centers&amp;nbsp;worldwide.

== Searching for probates in this court. ==

Strategies, Tips, Other?
See the above&amp;nbsp;Indexes or those available through the Family History Library or its&amp;nbsp;many family history centers worldwide for an index to this court.

&lt;br&gt;To view a list of parishes and their&amp;nbsp;respective probate court jurisdiction, see the "Middlesex Parishes and Their Probate Jurisdictions" on the main page for Middlesex&amp;nbsp;Probate Records.