UK Wills

The location of Wills in the UK and Ireland is complex. However, for England and Wales, copies of all wills post 1858 are stored centrally. Thus, the simplest way to get at them is to apply to the central administration office, the Probate sub registry in York. (see below)

To access these wills, you need to know whether one has been written, of course. To do this, you need to refer to the annual Probate Indexes for England and Wales to look up your particular person. It's important to realise that relatively few people wrote wills and these were mostly men. I'm not certain but I seem to recall that the LDS church has filmed these indexes and wills up to a certain date in the 20th century, mid 1950s seems to ring a bell. You may care to check at your local LDS church Family History Centre.

Prior to 1858, wills in England and Wales were administered by the Church of England and thus the wills will generally be in the local diocesan record office. This is usually the same as the local county record office. The problem with Diocesan will records is that they refer to the area covered by the diocese and this will often overlap a number of counties. In time also many dioceses were subdivided which adds to the confusion as to where the wills are NOW stored.

For example, the Diocese of Chester covered half of Lancashire and all of Cheshire at one time (up until the 1880s). They could probably be stored in the Lancashire record office. This may or may not be the situation and will in any case vary from diocese to diocese for pre 1858 wills. To add to the complexity, if someone had property in more than one diocese, the wills had to be proved at Canterbury.

There are various books on the subject, which will answer the question more fully. The Family Tree Magazine will supply a whole range of books on genealogy including those on wills and how to locate them. There's one   inexpensive booklet by Eve McLaughlin on pre 1858 wills for example. Also there's Jeremy Gibson’s "Wills and where to find them".
 
All post 1858 wills can be obtained from the Probate Registry Office in York for a fee of £2 per will.

Send request to Probate Sub Registry, Duncombe Place, York, YO1 2EA Tel:  01904 624210
The Lancashire Record Office, Bow Lane, Preston, Lancs PR1 2RE. Tel: 01772 263039.