What information is available?
England, Wales and Northern Ireland
You can find a lot of information on a will – but depending on its age, you might need a firm grasp of medieval Latin and the ability to decipher old handwriting!
Other points to bear in mind, especially when looking at very old wills is that real estate and personal estate were dealt with separately. Often you will find no mention of real estate in a will because this was governed by separate manorial and common law. Usually the eldest son automatically inherited real estate. Daughters would often be given their share of an inheritance on marriage, in the form of a dowry. Therefore, they might not be mentioned in a will.
You might find:
- Charitable bequests – these appear quite often and can give clues about the origin of the person making the will.
- Provision for the widow – older wills might refer to the widow’s “thirds”, referring to the widow’s legal entitlement to one third of her husband’s estate for life.
- Provision for the children - the eldest son normally inherited all the real estate and the largest house. However, as mentioned above, this might not be stated in the will. Daughters may well have been provided for when they married. If there are large discrepancies between the amounts left to various children, this is normally the result of provision already having been made, rather than a sign of disfavour.
- Items of jewellery, silver or clothing might be listed separately. Small items of clothing were often left to loyal servants.
- Surprises - the testator might use his will as the means to acknowledge and provide for children born out of wedlock.
- Names and ages might be given which can help you find birth/baptism records for those family members.
- Remember that “father”, “brother” and “son” and “mother”, “sister” and “daughter” would have been applied to in-laws as well as blood relatives. “Cousin” was applied far more widely than just the children of the parent’s sibling.
Scotland
When looking at very old wills you should bear in mind that heritable estate and moveable estate were dealt with separately. In Scotland up until 1868 wills could only be used to transfer moveable property. The inheritance of land and buildings involved separate processes - either the retours procedure
or else a legal document called a trust disposition and settlement.
In the period 1868-1964 a will could transfer moveable and heritable property, although the latter could also go through the retours process. Since 1964 most heritable property has passed through testaments or trust deeds.
