The Court of Probate Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. 77) was an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom. It transferred responsibility for the granting of
probate
Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the sta ...
, and
letters of administration, from the
ecclesiastical court
An ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages, these courts had much wider powers in many areas of Europe than be ...
s of
England and Wales to a new civil
Court of Probate
In the history of the courts of England and Wales, the Court of Probate was created by the Court of Probate Act 1857, which transferred the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts in testamentary matters to the new court so created.
The Judg ...
. It created a
Principal Probate Registry
The National Probate Calendar is a register of proved wills and administrations in England and Wales since 1858.
History
The probate calendar was created by the Probate Registry, which was responsible for proving wills and administrations from 1 ...
in
London (
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...
)
and a number of district probate registries.
Sources
* Herber, Mark (2004). ''Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History'', p. 214. Sutton Publishing.
References
External links
HMCS Probate Service
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1857
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