Find your ancestors in Wills & Administrations at Lincoln Vol. II 1601-1652, Introduction to Original Volume

Wills & Administrations at Lincoln Vol. II 1601-1652

British Record Society volume 41

Published 1910

Introduction to Original Volume

An apology is due to the subscribers for the length of time that they have been kept waiting for the completion of this volume. The delay, however, has its compensation. It was only under pressure that I consented to edit this second volume, for, while I could not shut my eyes to the fact that there were many errors and omissions in the official manuscript calendar from which it was prepared, I could not find time to make a new calendar from the wills themselves. When, however, pages 1-96 had been printed, Mr. J.S. Smith, one of the clerks in the District Probate Registry, collated the official calendar with the volumes of wills, and to his skill and patient labour those who use this calendar are very deeply indebted.

From pages 97 to the end the results of Mr. Smith's work are incorporated in the text, and the appendix (pages 215-227), which is distressingly lengthy, contains the corrections which ought to be made in the text of pages 1-96. The appendix has been put into a form which will enable readers to use it, with as little inconvenience as may be, side by side with the text.

During the last few years the records of the Bishop of Lincoln have been in process of arrangement, and among them a great number of testamentary documents have been found and transferred to the District Probate Registry. These, in so far as they relate to the period from 1600 to 1652, have been included in this volume, and have helped to swell the appendix.

An index of persons residing outside the county of Lincoln has been added to the volume, and the places have, so far as possible, been identified, and given in this index under their modern names.

C. W. FOSTER.