The Richard III Society website>Resources

Index of Testators 1399-1540

http://www.ricardianresources.online/2_testatorsindex.php

Brief review: This is new to me. It's been out on CD since 2008, but is now available for free online. Sharing for those who may not have heard of it. I didn't see it previously discussed in this newsgroup, or on Some Notes on English Medieval Genealogy.
- 28,000 entries drawn from 1,075 sources including bishop's registers.
- That is 12,000 more wills than the total number proved in the PCC during the same period
- This is an index to wills for which abstracts/transcripts/translations have been published in books and periodicals.
- This index should be used in conjunction with, and not as a replacement to county/diocesan will indexes, such as those found on findmypast's National Wills Index https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records/england-and-wales-published-wills-and-probate-indexes-1300-1858. Both include unique references. I find the spreadsheet format of the Ricardian Index of Testators superior to findmypast's OCR scans of British Record Society publications. Findmypast's interface, and search engine limitations, such as inability to search for sound-alike surnames, and search results that can only be opened as PDF files are much more clumsy. I do wish the National Wills Index had been made into a database, similar to their York Medieval Probate Index database. Nevertheless, the National Wills Index is the only option to view many volumes of the British Record Society publications online, so I grit my teeth and use it. In the Ricardian Index, I like that you can scroll up and down and browse for unexpected variants. National search results can be displayed for a surname in one screen.

Nathan

Nathan

Thanks, Nathan, this is a great resource.

The Richard III Society have also made available transcripts of 89 wills with an English text that were proved in the Prerogative Court of York in the period 1477-99: see http://www.ricardianresources.online/3_york_wills.php. Almost all the wills are of Yorkshire people.

> The Richard III Society website>Resources
>
> Index of Testators 1399-1540
>
> http://www.ricardianresources.online/2_testatorsindex.php
>
> Brief review: This is new to me. It's been out on CD since 2008, but is now available for free online. Sharing for those who may not have heard of it. I didn't see it previously discussed in this newsgroup, or on Some Notes on English Medieval Genealogy.
> - 28,000 entries drawn from 1,075 sources including bishop's registers.
> - That is 12,000 more wills than the total number proved in the PCC during the same period
> - This is an index to wills for which abstracts/transcripts/translations have been published in books and periodicals.
> - This index should be used in conjunction with, and not as a replacement to county/diocesan will indexes, such as those found on findmypast's National Wills Index https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records/england-and-wales-published-wills-and-probate-indexes-1300-1858. Both include unique references. I find the spreadsheet format of the Ricardian Index of Testators superior to findmypast's OCR scans of British Record Society publications. Findmypast's interface, and search engine limitations, such as inability to search for sound-alike surnames, and search results that can only be opened as PDF files are much more clumsy. I do wish the National Wills Index had been made into a database, similar to their York Medieval Probate Index database. Nevertheless, the National Wills Index is the only option to view many volumes of the British Record Society publications online, so I grit my teeth and use it. In the Ricardian Index, I like that you can scroll up and down and browse for unexpected variants. National search results can be displayed for a surname in one screen.
>
> Nathan
>
>
>
>
>
> Nathan

Thanks Nathan, a wonderful resource.

On Sunday, 30 January 2022 at 13:03:28 UTC+1, michae...@gmail.com wrote:
> Thanks, Nathan, this is a great resource.
>
> The Richard III Society have also made available transcripts of 89 wills with an English text that were proved in the Prerogative Court of York in the period 1477-99: see http://www.ricardianresources.online/3_york_wills.php. Almost all the wills are of Yorkshire people.

The Prerogative Court of York was not formed until 3 May 1577. Before that date the two courts were the Audience Court and the Exchequer Court.

Wibs

Thanks for the correction. The Richard III Society has the description wrong on its site.

On Monday, 31 January 2022 at 09:07:50 UTC, Wibs wrote:
> On Sunday, 30 January 2022 at 13:03:28 UTC Michael Cayley wrote
> > Thanks, Nathan, this is a great resource.
> >
> > The Richard III Society have also made available transcripts of 89 wills with an English text that were proved in the Prerogative Court of York in the period 1477-99: see http://www.ricardianresources.online/3_york_wills.php. Almost all the wills are of Yorkshire people.
> The Prerogative Court of York was not formed until 3 May 1577. Before that date the two courts were the Audience Court and the Exchequer Court.
>
> Wibs