The Hertfordshire Wills Index 1415-1857 is now free to search on the National Wills Index, and copies of the wills are available for ordering online.
Details of over 27,630 individuals can now be found free of charge on the National Wills Index website. This index covers in one alphabetical sequence all the wills (both original and registered copies), inventories, administration bonds, accounts and other related documents which survive among the records of the Archdeaconries of Huntingdon (Hitchin Division) and St Albans now held at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies.
Coverage may be summarised as follows:
Archdeaconry of Huntingdon (Hitchin Division):
Original wills (together with some inventories), 1557-1857 (Ref, HW); will registers, 1557-1843 (Ref, HR); inventories, 1568-1789 (Ref, AHH22 includes some administration bonds); administration bonds and accounts, 1609-1857 (Ref, AHH23).
Archdeaconry of St Albans:
Original wills, including administration bonds and inventories filed with them, 1518-1857 (Ref, AW); will registers, also including grants of administration, 1415-1857 (Ref, AR); inventories, 1518-1764 (Ref, A25); no original probate accounts are known to have survived for this archdeaconry.
Copies of the originals can be ordered online for £10. These are supplied digitally by Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies and delivered via a PDF file to your e-mail address.
