Until 1857 the church authorities were responsible for accepting the validity of a will (proving or granting probate), but in 1858 a new system of civil probate registries was established and will proven by the Probate Registry are listed separately. The index below lists known wills proven by the church with all the the variations on the surname PRIESTNALL for the period up to 1858.

The wills are listed in the date order of when they were proven, and is in most cases an approximation of the year / month of death.

The aim of the transcript is to show accurate dates of death / burial, persons named, interesting portions of the will, and where available the full inventory of possessions.

Some of the wills are difficult to read with age, especially those written on parchment, and in such cases transcripts will highlight full sentences, as they are written.

There are also a number of transcriptions that are in Latin, and where possible they are translated, although my Latin is less than basic and not helped by the writers of the original document who sometimes used a form of religeous slang Latin, of which I have been unable to find a logical translation.

The importance is that the basic meaning is kept intact, and this is what I have attempted to do.

The column listing TYPE is 1-Will, 2-Administration Bond (normally no will), 3-Inventory of property, 4- Codicil or other probate documents. The column listing YEAR is the year the will was proven.

The highlighted names are links to a transcript of the will available on this website, usually naming beneficiaries etc, and executors.

It is noted that for the period prior to 1858 there are only two Priestnall wills found that are proven within Leicestershire, and no administration bonds.One may only assume that no further estates were proven during this period, or that a number of wills may be found in surrounding counties, if members of the family went back to their roots.

Ongoing research will hopefully shed more light on this.