Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (23 page)

There is another way to research where a will might have been proved, using an associated set of records that were linked to the state's desire to raise taxation. In 1796, death duty on a deceased's estate was introduced, and remained in force until it was replaced by the Inheritance Tax in 1906. As part of administering the tax, registers were created for every estate that came within the financial threshold of the tax, and you can use these to identify which ecclesiastical jurisdiction was used to grant probate, as this is noted in the indexes to the death duty registers. Not everyone would have been liable to pay
death duty; it is estimated that until 1805 the tax was payable on about 25 per cent of all estates. After 1805 until 1815 this increased to 75 per cent, so these tax registers become a far more important source for tracking probate records.

When Jeremy Clarkson was first approached to take part in
Who Do You Think You Are?
he was not convinced that the journey would be particularly interesting. He spotted the surname ‘Kilner' lurking amongst the Clarksons. Jeremy knew about the Kilner side of the family, but when the research team showed him the extent of their glass manufacturing empire he became intrigued as to how it had all evaporated so quickly.

Jeremy tracked down a key member of his family, Caleb Kilner, the grandson of the company's founder, John Kilner. Caleb died in 1920, and his will was instrumental in establishing that he was a very wealthy man indeed. His estate was estimated at £142,000 – the equivalent of over £3.5 million in today's money – and he owned stock and property all over the country. Caleb's executors were listed as his son George – who inherited most of his father's wealth – and his son-in-law Harry Smethhurst, who was married to Caleb's daughter Annie – Jeremy's great-grandmother.

George Kilner was clearly not a very good businessman, and by the time he died 20 years later his will revealed that his fortunes had diminished dramatically, being worth just under 10 per cent of his father's fortune. Furthermore, Harry Smethhurst seems to have spent heavily too during his lifetime, earning the nickname ‘Flash' – his will also shows that the Kilner money inherited by himself and Annie had been dissipated by the time of his death – ‘clogs to clogs in three generations'! Any remaining funds from the Kilner fortune passed to another side of the family after Annie's death; she fell out with her daughter, Gwendoline, and left all her remaining money to her son Tom. Gwendoline was Jeremy's grandmother.

The National Archives has placed online an index for these records for all courts other than the PCC, known as ‘country courts'. The index covers the period 1796–1811 and it is free to search, although downloading the document will incur a cost (unless viewed onsite at The National Archives). You can search the indexes of these records online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline. The entire collection of extant death duty registers between 1796 and 1903 is also available to search online on the commercial website www.findmypast.com. You need to have subscribed to the most expensive package to search these records on this website, though. The Society of Genealogists also has indexes to these registers (although not the actual registers) for 1796 to 1857. Copies of the original indexes, as well as the registers themselves, can be seen free of charge in person at The National Archives, Kew, contained in series IR 26 and IR 27.

The material contained in the death duty registers provides information on the date of death; the value of the deceased's estate; the amount of death duty paid; and details of the administration of the estate under the terms of the bequest made in the will. So they are worth looking at even if you do know the registration district in which the will was proved.

The probate system was greatly simplified by the Probate Act of 1857, which stipulated that the process of granting probate would be transferred from the ecclesiastical courts to civil authorities. A a civil Court of Probate was established and became responsible for all probate matters in England and Wales from 11 January 1858. Even if the testator died abroad probate would still be dealt with by this court if there was any property in England or Wales.

‘The principal Probate Registery holds copies of all wills for which probate has been granted since 1858
.'

Probate registries were created in various districts throughout England and Wales, with a Principal Registry in London. Probate would be granted in any of these local district probate registries, between seven days or six months after the death of the testator. Upon completion of the process, the district probate registry would send a second copy of the registered will to the Principal Probate Registry.
Thus the whole probate system became centralized and copies of every registered will made since 1858 can now be found in one place in London.

The Principal Probate Registry is currently situated in Holborn, London, and is open to any member of the public. The Registry houses copies of all wills for which probate has previously been granted, and annual alphabetical indexes to the registered wills are available for inspection in its search room. Looking for a will, or letters of administration, is relatively straightforward. Once you have found an entry in the annual index, you can request a copy of the registered will at the enquiry desk, which will be provided within an hour or posted to any address. A charge will be made for providing a copy, currently £5. As well as the onsite indexes in the search room, a National Probate Calendar exists on microfilm or fiche that can be found in many national and local archives, duplicating the indexed information between 1858 and 1943.

The information in the indexes is quite detailed and informative. They are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the testator, and their last residential address is also provided. In many cases, you will find their date of death, and often where they died, along with the date probate was granted and the relevant probate office; the value of the estate; and, until 1996, who the executor and administrators were (and sometimes including the relationship to the deceased). The indexes will often detail the solicitors who handled the probate process. Indeed, in recent cases you may wish to contact the solicitors' firm to see if they have any extra documentation relating to the handling of the probate process. If you have trouble finding the firm, it might be worth contacting the Law Society, as they can check their lists to see if the firm is still active or not.

If you are unable to visit the Registry in London you may be able to search at the appropriate district registry. However, many district registries are now transferring probate documents older than 50 years either to appropriate local record offices, or to the Principal Probate Registry. Don't forget, though, that most archives hold a copy of the National Probate Calendar up to 1943, which might contain the information you need.

The laws regarding inheritance and probate in Scotland were slightly different to those of England and Wales. Scotland had strict rules stating that all land had to be given to the eldest son, and in the case of no male children, to the eldest daughter. This remained the case until 1868. Testators were only allowed to bequeath their estate (material goods and chattels) to whom they wished through testaments. Thus there were no such things as ‘wills' for this period. Estates of those who died intestate were dealt with by a record known as a ‘testament dative', which were similar documents to ‘letters of administration' south of the border.

The appropriate church courts had responsibility for dealing with matters of probate in Scotland until 1560. After this the situation changed and responsibility was transferred to non-religious bodies known as commissariat courts. There were many commissariat courts responsible for administering their own specific part of Scotland. These courts all came under the jurisdiction of the Principal Commissariat Court in Edinburgh (a similar system to post-1858 probate administration in England and Wales). In 1824 the Sheriff Courts took over the responsibility for probate. The jurisdiction of these courts broadly coincided with the Scottish counties.

Probate records for Scotland prior to 1824 are now held at the National Archives of Scotland. This archive also has records for the early years of probate records being administered by the Sheriff Courts. You can view this information either by visiting the National Archives of Scotland or going online to view the index at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk. The website covers the years 1513 to 1901 and has over 611,000 entries in the index. However, it is not possible to search this website without payment. Bear in mind that it was not obligatory for people to leave testaments and it was a less common practice than in England. If you are searching for wills post 1901 then they are likely to be held at the appropriate Sheriff Court.

The system of probate administration in Ireland was the same as in England and Wales. The Church of Ireland was responsible for the process through its own ecclesiastical courts, either consistory or diocesan. There were no archdeacon courts and only a tiny number of
peculiar courts. The highest ecclesiastical court in the land was the Prerogative Court of Armagh. This system survived until 1858, when it was altered in the same fashion as in England and Wales. A Principal Registry in Dublin was established along with eleven district registries. Copies of probate documents would be submitted by the district registries to the Dublin office.

Unfortunately, a fire at the General Registry Office in the Civil War in 1922 also destroyed probate records housed in Dublin. Original probate records after 1858 should still be with the district registries, and additional copies may have also been sent to the National Archives of Ireland or the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland since 1922. The National Archives of Ireland also has various substitute records for this period. This includes copies of probate documents that were sent from relevant firms of solicitors, records obtained from family papers and also various transcripts that were written prior to the fire in 1922. Although most of the wills did not survive, some indexes did; and they often contain quite detailed information such as the name and address of testators and when probate was granted. The National Archives of Ireland does also hold approximately 10,000 wills that were retrieved from family papers, and these have been fully indexed.

All probate records originating after 1922 will be either in the National Archives of Ireland or in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, depending on where they were made.

The Ecclesiastical Court of the Dean of Jersey granted probate for all residents until 1949. After that date, it became the responsibility of the Principal Probate Registry in London. In Guernsey probate is still under the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical authorities, the Ecclesiastical Court of the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

Ecclesiastical courts were responsible for granting probate in the Isle of Man until 1884. The courts would either be the Consistory Court of Sodor and Man or the Archdeaconry Court of the Isle of Man. After 1884 the Manx High Court of Justice became the responsible authority for probate matters.

The purpose of this section is to demonstrate the rich and varied ways to add historical context to the lives of your ancestors. Here you can learn about aspects of British and global social history that would have directly affected the lives of your distant relatives, and use the records and resources generated by these events to discover more about them as people – their work, where they came from and their family secrets.

At some point over the course of the last few centuries, one of your ancestors would have served in the British Army. There are plenty of clues that suggest this military link – an old photograph of a relative in army uniform; some medals passed down through the generations. This chapter shows you how to use these clues to access original records and piece together the army careers of your relatives, as well as gain a greater understanding of what life was like as a soldier.

The beginnings of the modern-day British Army can be traced back to 1660 with the restoration of Charles II to the throne, for this was the first time a regular standing army was established. A small number of regiments were created on a permanent basis with the responsibility of guarding the King.

Nevertheless, there had been many wars and conflicts for centuries before 1660 and armies of men would have been raised as and when required, although on a temporary basis, being discharged when the fighting was over. Finding an ancestor who may have served in the army prior to 1660 is more difficult as there was no permanent institution and, therefore, there was no systematic record-keeping system.

‘
There are many records available to help you trace your ancestor’s military career
.’

The earliest method of raising a group of men to serve in a battle was tied into the feudal system, with the lord of the manor having the responsibility of gathering together such a body. Additionally, all men holding a certain amount of land were required to serve as knights, although the knight system was not used after the fourteenth century.
Through the course of time the feudal system came to be replaced by the ‘contractual’ system, whereby contracts or indentures were used to secure military personnel. Indentures were used between the King and the nobility, and in turn by the nobility with the lesser sections of society right down to peasant level. The start of the English Civil War in 1642 saw the beginnings of a professional military body with the formation of the New Model Army in 1645 by Oliver Cromwell. The New Model Army was disbanded in 1660, shortly after the restoration of Charles II, and it is after 1660 that the origins of the modern British Army can be traced.

The regiments that formed the army in 1660 were recruited from units that were formed during, or even before, the Civil War. Two regiments of Horse Guards and two regiments of Foot Guards were created. Originally, these regiments served as the Army for England and Wales, with Scotland having its own forces. However, after the Act of Union between the two countries in 1707, these Scottish units were united with the English units to form the British Army.

The regiments formed in 1660 are the oldest in the British Army; thereafter the regiment became the basic unit that formed the core of the Army’s organizational structure. Army records were organized and retained on a regimental basis, and certain records may still be with the regimental record office. Indeed, it was only in 1920 that an army-wide service number was introduced for each serving soldier.

Each regiment would be under the overall command of a colonel. A regiment could be an infantry, cavalry, artillery or engineer regiment, with various specialist forces, such as the foot guards, also existing from time to time. Originally, regiments would be named after the colonels in charge of the regiment and, as such, the names would change with the change of the colonel. Hence, to make things easier to organize, a numbering system was also introduced in 1694, infantry regiments being named 1st Regiment of Foot, 2nd Regiment of Foot, etc. As the system of naming a regiment after a colonel became increasingly confusing (as more than one colonel could have the same surname) it was ordered in 1751 that regiments also take on official titles, such as the 4th Regiment of Foot being given the additional title of ‘King’s Own’.

Further changes were introduced in 1782, with regiments being attached to geographical parts of the country. Hence, the 5th Regiment of Foot became attached to Northumberland. This was done in part to increase recruitment, although regiments continued to recruit outside their given territories when required. The naming of regiments was changed once more in 1881. From that date, numbers were no longer used. Instead all regiments were given territorial titles, usually county names, although some continued to use their old number unofficially. This system of organization remained largely intact until and during the First World War. Service records for soldiers serving after 1922 have not yet been released to the general public, and changes occurring in army organization in the twentieth century do not require a detailed analysis for genealogical purposes.

As mentioned, the basic army unit was the regiment. These regiments would be grouped into four general categories of troops:

1.
  
Cavalry:
These were the mounted horse regiments of troops. The majority were disbanded or merged in 1922, the horse being replaced by the tank.

2.
  
Infantry:
These were the basic foot soldiers who served on the line at times of conflict. Infantry regiments have traditionally formed the bulk of the army, and therefore this is where you are most likely to find your ancestor.

3.
  
Artillery:
Artillery regiments were specially trained to use cannon, mortars and other heavy guns.

4.
  
Engineers:
Their historical role includes survey work, mining, construction projects and support services to front-line troops.

Specialist regiments have also existed, such as the two foot guard regiments originally raised to guard the monarch in 1660, the Grenadier Guards and the Coldstream Guards. There are other non-regular army elements such as the Militia, and relevant records are discussed later in this chapter.

As regiments were subject to many name changes, mergers with other regiments, or even disbanding at various points in time, it is worthwhile checking the correct name for your ancestor’s regiment during the particular period of interest. You can do this online on the website www.regiments.org. Alternatively, consult the following comprehensive guide commonly found in archives and libraries, written by Arthur Swinson, called
A Register of the Regiments and Corps of the British Army: the ancestry of the regiments and corps of the Regular Establishment
.

Although the terms ‘regiment’ and ‘battalion’ are often used interchangeably, the difference in their meanings was fixed by 1660. Hereafter ‘regiment’ would be for the administrative organization, whereas ‘battalion’ was the term used for the actual fighting unit. Each battalion would be divided into ten units, known as companies. In theory each company would have 100 men, thus a battalion would comprise 1,000 men, but this was not always the case. An individual soldier (or ‘other rank’) would be recruited into any company of a particular battalion.

The diagram to the right shows how a battalion fitted into the wider hierarchy of the Army.

To begin searching for your ancestor amongst the surviving records it is essential to know whether he was a commissioned officer or other rank, as the records have been organized according to this distinction (unless you are searching the period prior to 1660). A commissioned officer could be any of the following ranks: lieutenant, captain, major, colonel, brigadier or general. Your ancestor would have been an ‘other rank’ if he had held any of the following ranks: private, lance corporal, corporal, sergeant or sergeant major. Once you have this information you can begin the search for your ancestor’s records. The majority of these records are now stored at The National Archives (TNA).

As there was no regular army prior to 1660, there are no comprehensive service records. Additionally, what does survive contains little genealogical information.

The earliest lists of soldiers, recruited in the feudal period, may survive in TNA department series for Chancery or Exchequer records (specifically C 54, C 64, C 65 and E 101). In 1285 the Statute of Winchester required all males aged between 15 and 60 to equip themselves with armoury that they could afford and they would be duly assessed. By the fifteenth century such assessments were being made by the appropriate local official along with the Lord Lieutenant of the county (also known as Commissioners of the Array). The earliest such ‘muster lists’ survive from 1522; other miscellaneous lists would also have been forwarded to the Exchequer and Privy Council and form part of their records. A comprehensive guide to these records can by found in
Tudor and Stuart Muster Rolls: A Directory of Holdings in the British Isles
by J. Gibson and A. Dell (Federation of Family History Societies, 1991), including information on where they are held.

If your ancestor served during the English Civil War or Interregnum period after it, you may be able to find some evidence for this. Although there were no specific service records, there may be other records containing relevant information, mostly for officers only, though. The best place to start at The National Archives is to look through the Calendars of State Papers. Other published sources are also useful, such as:

•
 
Edward Peacock’s
Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers
(listing all officers of both sides in 1642)

•
 
W. H. Black (ed.),
Docquets of Letters Patent 1642–6
(1837) (containing additional information on officers of the Royalist camp)

•
 
P. R. Newman, ‘The Royalist Officer Corps, 1642–1660’,
Historical Journal
, 26 (1983) (ditto)

•
 
R. R. Temple, ‘The Original Officer List of the New Model Army’,
Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
(contains relevant sources for the New Model Army)

•
 
I. Gentles,
The New Model Army
(a history of the New Model Army)

You may find further information in The National Archives State Papers, series SP 28 (the relevant lists have not been calendared) or the Exchequer series.

Individual army records since 1660 have been organized into those of officers and other ranks, and finding records for each group will be discussed separately. Another important defining moment for the family historian is the onset of the First World War, as records for officers and soldiers serving before this conflict are stored in a different place to those serving after it.

Broadly speaking, most people search in two types of records: service records and pension records.

‘
There are two main types of records: service and pension records
.’

The officer classes came almost exclusively from the more privileged sections of society for this period, the majority also having rural gentry backgrounds. Indeed, it was a fundamental prerequisite to be a gentleman before an individual was even considered for an army commission. Until 1871, the way most people became army officers was through the purchase of their commission. Nor was promotion based on any meritocracy; promotions were also bought, officers seldom being promoted through ability. It would not be unusual for wealthy young boys (there was no minimum joining age) to have rapid promotions at the expense of more talented, if less wealthy, officers. The problems of this state of affairs became apparent in the Crimean War (1853–56), and by 1871 it was no longer possible to purchase commissions.

As the Army did not have a central record-keeping system until the First World War, the surviving records come from documents created by the relevant regiment. The majority of the records are now at The National Archives, but you may also find additional information at the regimental museum and it is worthwhile contacting these institutes too. Perhaps the best place to begin searching for an officer is by using the Army Lists.

Other Published Sources

•
Promotions of individual officers were often announced in the
London Gazette
(available online at www.londongazette.co.uk, or at The National Archives, series WO 121)
.

• The Times
would also publish promotions of officers. It is also useful for providing service histories in obituaries of some officers, or reporting various conflicts. The newspaper’s archive can be searched online at most libraries
.

•
The
Dictionary of National Biography
and other substantial biographical dictionaries will also have entries for distinguished officers and should be consulted. You may also find details for your officer in regimental histories. The National Archives has some published books giving biographical details for officers serving in the early eighteenth century and before. These can be found in its library
.

Army Lists were begun in 1702 and listed every officer serving in the Army. After 1740 it became routine to publish these annually (in times of conflict they may have been published more frequently than this). If you know the approximate date your ancestor served in the Army you can trace his entire career, from initial commission to subsequent promotions and eventual retirement, including details of which regiment he belonged to. The lists are somewhat basic, however, and do not expect to find any extensive career details or any genealogical information.