Find your ancestors in Chichester Consistory Administrations 1555-1800

Chichester Consistory Administrations 1555-1800

British Record Society Volume 64

Published 1940

Introduction to Original Volume

The Diaries from which the following Calendar of Administrations has been compiled are as follows and contain the names of Testators, persons of whose effects Administration was granted (including accounts, renunciations, commissions, etc., connected with testamentary depositions), Sequestrations, Commissions for various purposes, and Marriage Licences.

Only the Administrations and documents relating to them have been extracted for the present index, the wills having already appeared in Vol. 49 of the Index Library, while the Marriage Licences were extracted by Mr. Dunkin and appeared in Vols. 9 and 12 of the Sussex Archaeological Society's proceedings.

Diary	Date	Pages	Notes
A	1555-1572	Jan-99
B	1575-1593	1-147	Page 22 is blank and there is a note "No. Diary kept between 1576 and 1585 ", which, however, is belied by Vol. C.
C	1577-1585	1-121
D	1595-1600	1-119
E	1601-1613	1-246
F	1613-1624	1-230
G	1625-1634	1-275
H	1635-1645	1-206
"	1644-1645	2o6a-2o6v	Inserted since volume originally written. Some entries appear in Vol. K.
"	1660-1665	207-370
I	1666-1670	1-134
K	1644-1653	1-165	Some entries occur in Vol. H
L	1667-1670	1-69	A duplicate of Vol I, pp. 50-134
"	1671-1672	70-93
M	1697-1714	1-131
N	1714-1728	1-86
O	1729-1738	1-131
P	1738-1749	1-111
Q	1749-1759	1-84
R	1758-1768	1-90
S	1768-1782	1-139
T	1783-1799	1-136

The Series continues up to the present time. It will be noticed that in Diaries B, C, D, H, I, K the sequence of dates is rather mixed up and there appears to be a gap between L and M. There is the usual interval between 1644 and 1660 in Vol H when all Wills and Administrations were proved or administered in London.

Peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury

It was not in every Diocese that the Archbishop of Canterbury had peculiar jurisdiction. A full list of such Dioceses is to be found in the Parliamentary Return of Probates of Wills printed in 1845.

As regards the Diocese of Chichester, the Archbishop had jurisdiction over nine parishes viz Bersted, East Lavant, Pagham, Slmdon and Tangmere in the Deanery of Pagham. All Saints parish in the City of Chichester, Patching and Tarring in the Deanery of Tarring, and Mayfield in the Deanery of Dallington. This Peculiar is referred to in Dr Marshall Ancient Courts of Probate p 41 and in Mr J H Lea's Genealogical Research in England p 38 as the Peculiar of Pagham and Tarring.

The Registers and Diaries (or Act Books) containing transcripts of Wills and grants of Administration are in a somewhat confused order of date but the following list will help to make it clearer. The references in the printed Calendar are to the volumes stated in this list. There is considerable overlapping of dates.,/p>

Wills - Part 1

Vol	Dates	No. of pages	Notes
1A	1520-1526	104	A register of Wills. It really embraces from 1516 to 1536.
A	1560-1567	33	A register of Wills. v. In this book the dates work backwards, those of 1560 being at the end.
1B	1553-1563	25	A register of Wills. 1B is at the commencement and 3 at the reversed end. Each part has a separate pagination.
3	1568-1570	29
2	1560-1567	80	A register of Wills. There are also a few Administrations.
4	1566-1575	57	A register of Wills.
5	1576-1578	66	From pp. 1-24 are Wills. From pp. 26-66 it is a Diary, hence there are often two pages against most of the Wills. All the Administrations are calendared.
6	1578-1592	82	A register of Wills and a few Administrations.
7	1592-1622	159	A register of Wills. Two Wills proved in London in 1616 at end.
10	1622-1648	173	A register of Wills.

Part II

Three books, two of which are numbered 8 and 9 and a thin book which I have called 9A, are registers of Wills proved in London. As they seem to be of a different class to the other registers, they form a separate Calendar.

It will be seen that the parishes are not confined to the boundaries of the Peculiar but cover the whole Archdeaconry of Chichester. There is nothing to show the reason for this.

Vol	Dates	No. of pages	Notes
8	1622-1639; 1639-1670	69	These are at the end of the volume
9	1615-1622	47
9A	1614-1615	12

Administrations

The Administrations in this Peculiar are taken from the Diaries which consist of the following volumes. Only the Administrations are here calendared. It will have been observed that a few Administrations occur in the Registers of Wills.

Diary	Dates	No. of pages	Notes
A			There is no book now existing under this denomination.
B	1592-1614	39	There is a separate index of Wills and Admons. at end of the book.
C	1568-1575	39	There is no index to this book.
D	1578-1592	42	This book has an index at the end.
E	1614-1639	68	This book has separate indexes of Wills and Admons.
F	1639-1670	40	Has separate indexes. It is labelled E outside, but I have put F as well and it is by this letter the Admons. have been calendared.

There are other indexes in the Probate Registry which bring the records of this Peculiar down to 1859, but from about the date the old indexes above enumerated end, they are all written out in a modern handwriting and are very easy of reference, so it was not thought necessary to print them.

Business in this Peculiar was never inhibited, but during a vacancy of the See of Canterbury no business whatever was done.

II. Peculiar of the Dean of Chichester

The Peculiar of the Dean had jurisdiction over the following parishes in Chichester, St. Andrew, St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Olave, St. Pancras, St. Peter the Great, St. Peter the Less, and the outlying parishes of New Fishbourn and Rumboldswick (otherwise Wike or Whyke).

The Registers and Diaries to 1800 are contained in nine volumes, the particulars of which are as follows:

Vol	Dates	No. of pages	Notes
1	1577-1626	75	A Diary
2	1553-1563	61	A Register of Wills
3	1577-1643	260	A Register of Wills
4	1660-1672	31	A Diary
5	1689-1768	140	A Diary. From 1704 to 1768 the Wills will be found in Vols. 6,.7, and part of 8.
6	1704-1731	253	A Register of Wills
7	1732-1766	261	A Register of Wills
8	1766-1793	251	A Register of Wills
9	1793-1830	36	A Register of Wills

Wills and Administrations are intermixed in the Diaries. The Calendar as here printed is not continued after 1800, but Wills and Administrations were dealt with till 1858 when the records were transferred to the Court of Probate.

This Peculiar was inhibited by the Bishop, usually for three months, at his Visitation. During inhibition the business was transacted in the Bishop's Court and the Wills proved and Administrations granted were registered there.