Durham Probate Records: post 1858

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Introduction

	Contents
	Related material - here
	Related material - elsewhere

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Catalogue

• Will registers
• Grants of Probate
• Grants of Administration
• Index to grants of probate and administration

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Contents

Registers kept by the Durham District Probate Registry in relation to probate jurisdiction after 1857. Further background information is included within the collection-level description.

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Accession details

See collection-level description for accession details and previous custodial history.

Conditions of access

Open for consultation. See notes within collection-level description for further details.

Copyright and copying

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. See notes within collection-level description for further details.
These volumes are too large to be photocopied and we do not provide other forms of copies from them unless in exceptional circumstances. Copies of all wills proved and probate administrations granted in England and Wales from 1858 onwards can be accessed at, and copies ordered from, the Probate Service or from District Probate Registries. Details are on the Probate Service website.

Finding aids

The National Probate Calendar for 1858-1942 is available on microfiche in the Palace Green library search room (to 1935), the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society Library in Newcastle upon Tyne, and other libraries and record repositories within the region. Further information on the national probate calendar and its availability online is included within The National Archives guide to wills and probate records.

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Related material - here

Howard of Naworth Papers, volumes 44/16-17 (temporary reference): two volumes containing copies of “manorial wills”, ca.1839-1866 and ca.1870-1943. These are copies of wills proved in various registries which contain references to properties within the Howard manors, chiefly in the Barony of Gilsland, Cumberland, together with a few references to Northumberland properties in the second volume. Please contact the search room in advance if you require access to the Howard of Naworth papers.

Related material - elsewhere

Northumberland Archives Service (at Woodhorn) holds a set of volumes parallel to the Co. Durham series in DPR2/1 and containing registered manuscript copies of wills proved at Newcastle upon Tyne District Probate Registry, 1858-1939. The wills are primarily those of testators whose property was situated in Northumberland and Newcastle upon Tyne, but from 1926 onwards these volumes also contain some wills of testators from Gateshead and other places in County Durham situated immediately south of the river Tyne.

Catalogue

Will registers
Reference: DPR2/1/1-131
Dates of creation: 1858-1940
Extent: 131 large volumes
Registered copies of wills, with one or two volumes for each year. The copies are in manuscript up to September 1933 and typescript thereafter. The wills are primarily those of testators whose property was situated in the county of Durham, with certain limitations on the coverage after 1926 (see under related material at Northumberland Archives Service above). Within each volume the copy wills are usually arranged chronologically by date of probate. The volumes do not contain any copies of grants of administrations (relating to estates of intestates); for such grants see under DPR2/3.
Most registers include an annual manuscript index of names of testators. Entries in these indexes are arranged alphabetically by initial letter of the testator's surname; within each letter group they are then arranged chronologically according to the date of probate.
Registers DPR2/1/113-131 (1931-1940) also include separate annual manuscript indexes of grants of administration (relating to the estates of intestates). No copies of the grants themselves for this period will be found in the registers or elsewhere in the Library.
Microfilms of the indexes (but not of the registered wills) are available for consultation and copying (ref 5TC 222-227, positives in Palace Green library search room)

Grants of Probate
Reference: DPR2/2/1-99
Dates of creation: 1876-1886 and 1894-1928
Extent: 99 large volumes
Grants of probate, with one or more volumes for each year. The eight-year gap (1887-1893) appears to have been ignored within the volume numbering scheme adopted by whichever office bound these volumes. The grants of probate are bound chronologically within each volume but are not individually numbered.

Grants of Administration
Reference: DPR2/3/1-94
Dates of creation: 1858-1928
Extent: 94 volumes
Grants of administration, bound in chronological order and numbered sequentially on the face or dorse, with one or two volumes per year. Volumes DPR2/3/1-18 are labelled “Administration Acts”. For the years 1858-1873 (DPR2/3/1-16) the numbers on the grants correspond to the entries in DPR2/4/1 below. The volumes for 1919-1928 (DPR2/3/74-93) include indexes arranged alphabetically by initial letter and then chronologically within each letter.
Indexes to grants of administration for 1931-1940 are included within the will registers at DPR2/1 above, but there are no copies of the grants themselves for this period within the collection.

Index to grants of probate and administration
Reference: DPR2/4/1
Dates of creation: 1858-1873
Extent: 1 volume
Manuscript calendar of names of deceased persons for whom grants of probate or administration were made at Durham. Within each year the deceased persons are listed chronologically by date of grant, first in a list of wills proved and then in a list of administrations granted. The deceased persons' surname and forenames are given, with their parish or town of residence. The numbers assigned to the grants of administration in DPR2/3/1-16 above (1858-1873), match the index entries in this volume.