These records are an underused resource for 19th-century research and can now be easily searched online, as Paul Blake reveals
From 1796 until 1903, copies of wills and administrations were sent from the English and Welsh probate courts and registries to the Inland Revenue, where any tax owing was calculated. Information about the payment of legacies and other details about the winding-up of estates can therefore often be found in the death-duty registers, documenting what today we would call inheritance tax. These record the levy of three successive taxes, namely legacy duty, succession duty and estate duty.
Initially, duty was payable on legacies and residues of personal estates over £20 bequeathed by a will or left by people who died without a will (‘intestate’) – but not on leases, freeholds or real estate. Inheritance by close relatives (children, spouses, parents and grandparents) was also exempt.
From 1805, numerous inclusions and exemptions were introduced, so that the registers, depending on the date, contain references to varying numbers of wills and administrations. By 1815, about three quarters of all grants and administrations are included, and by 1857 there should be an entry for all estates except those under the threshold. However, if the deceased’s assets were valued at less than £1,500 then frequently the authorities did not bother pursuing collection and the entries can be less extensive. The system ended in 1903, being replaced by a system of individual personal files, which were regularly destroyed after 30 years.
Accessing The Registers
The registers and their indexes are held at The National Archives in Kew (TNA) in series IR 26 and IR 27 respectively. Both the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) and ‘country court’ (any court apart from the PCC) registers and indexes are collected in several separate series, which include both wills and administrations. Not all of the country-court registers survive, and many from the 1890s were destroyed by fire.
The registers contain large printed pages divided into columns into which details were written, spreading across a double-page spread. The column headings changed during the period of the registers, particularly in 1812, with the earlier registers recording less information. However, the material could include details of the deceased and their estate, details of the executors, and information about the beneficiaries.
Frequently, detailed information not obtainable from the will itself is included: for e
