Useful addresses & location of sources

The three Devon Record Offices contain the most important genealogy-related archives in Devon. The Devon FHS web site at
http://www.devonfhs.org.uk and the Genuki (Genealogy in UK and Ireland) site at
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/DevonCRO/index.html provide links to the various repositories with maps of their locations.

The Record Offices' official web pages at
http://www.devon.gov.uk/record_office.htm and
http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/archives provide details of opening times, charges, service points, their professional genealogical research service, and a newsletter.

Service points in the county hold microfilm or microfiche copies of local parish registers (containing baptisms, marriages and burials), tithe maps and apportionments (showing land ownership and use in about 1840), non-conformist registers, and some other records for the local area. Microfilm or fiche of other documents can be made available when a member of staff visits. Telephone the appropriate Record Office or Service Point for more information.

The Devon Public Library Local Studies Service has several major reference collections of great relevance to Devon genealogy, about 100,000 items in total, the main collection being at the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter. You may search the online catalogue which is at www.devon.gov.uk/etched

The North Devon Local Studies Centre in Barnstaple has shared facilities, including front office, with the North Devon Athenaeum, the North Devon Local Studies Library and the North Devon Record Office. The third major centre is at Plymouth where the Local Studies Library also houses the Naval History Library. Libraries such as Exmouth, Bideford, Tiverton and Newton Abbot also have large collections of local material.

EXETER AREA

BARNSTAPLE AREA

PLYMOUTH AREA

Devon Wills & other Records relating to an occurrence of death

Wills and Administrations from 1858 to the present
Calendars - i.e. indexes with brief details - of wills and administrations for the whole of England and Wales, 1858-1966, can be searched at the Exeter Probate Sub-Registry, some volumes being in a fragile condition. Calendars for the years 1973-1998 are on microfiche, and a computer is available to search for wills from the 1950s to date. Where details are known, copies of wills and/or grants of administration, costing £5 per will, may be ordered in person, or by post (Cheques payable to 'H M Courts Service') from the Exeter Probate Sub-Registry, 2^nd floor, Exeter Crown and County Courts, Southernhay Gardens, Exeter EX1 1UH, Tel: 01392 415370, Email: exeter.psr@hmcourts-service.gsi.gov.uk.
To order by post, including a general search: The Postal Searches & Copies Dept, York Probate Sub-Registry, Castle Chambers, Clifford Street, York, YO1 9RG - see http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1211.htm. Applications for copies of wills can be made in person at the Principal Probate Registry, 1^st Avenue House, 42-49 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6NP, U.K.

Wills proved in Devon before 1858
The vast majority of original Devon wills were destroyed when the Exeter Probate Registry was bombed during the Blitz of 1942. Fortunately copies of some wills have survived. For instance there are Death Duty copies of almost all wills proved between 1812 and 1857. These copies are now held at the Devon Record Office in Exeter (DRO), listed as Estate Duty Office Wills. For the period 1796-1811 short abstracts of wills - rather than copies - were made. These abstracts, now well indexed, can be viewed online at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline.

Copies of other wills may be found as part of family, estate or solicitors' records, kept at DRO. There is a card index at DRO to these surviving documents. Also, prior to the loss of Devon wills in the Blitz, many abstracts of Devon wills were made by Olive Moger and Oswyn Murray. These abstracts are in two distinct series of bound volumes. There are copies of both sets in the Westcountry Studies Library, Exeter (WCSL), and a set of the Moger abstracts series at DRO. There are sundry other collections of transcripts and abstracts of Devon wills, at the Society of Genealogists and the College of Arms, both in London, and in various other published or manuscript sources - see last paragraph.

In the absence of an actual will (or any surviving copy/abstract of it), published calendars of wills can often be used to find a person's date and place of death. The majority of Devon wills were proved in Exeter, Barnstaple or Totnes. Copies of Fry's Devonshire Wills and Administrations (proved at Exeter, in three different courts: Episcopal Principal Registry, Archdeacon's Consistory Court, Episcopal Consistory Court) are in DRO, WCSL and Tree House. WCSL has a copy of Beckerlegge's Barnstaple Wills. No index to wills proved in the court at Totnes has survived.

Devon wills proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) before 1858
Testators or executors could choose to have wills proved at the highest court in the land, the PCC in London. The wills of Devon testators who held land outside Devon were proved at the PCC as a matter of course. Most wills of Royal Naval Seamen from 1786 were also proved there. Also between 1653 and 1660 all wills for the whole country were proved in London, not in local ecclesiastical courts. These wills are now catalogued and kept among the PCC wills. Calendars of PCC wills are held in the Reference Department of the Exeter City Library and at The National Archives and the Society of Genealogists, both in London. Almost all of the wills can be downloaded from the website of The National Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/wills.asp at £3.50 per will.

Inquisitions Post Mortem for Devon and Cornwall, 1200s-1600s
A 16 volume printed source of these Inquisitions (concerning inheritance) can be found in the Westcountry Studies Library. A calendar of such records, compiled by E.A.Fry, is also in WCSL.

The London Gazette (LG)
The London Gazette (1665/6 to date) contains notifications of some deaths. An incomplete series of copies of LG from the mid to late 19th century to date is held in the Reference Department of Exeter City Library.

A new index
A joint project between DFHS, DRO, PWDRO and Genuki/Devon is in progress. Eventually a complete list of all Devon testamentary matter, surviving or lost, will be published. Initially the project will concentrate on wills and administrations the originals of which have been lost, but of which copies, transcripts or abstracts have survived.