England, Durham Diocese, Probate Inventories, 1676-1846

What is in This Collection?

This collection consists of probate records from County Durham for the years 1687-1846. Certain parishes in the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Yorkshire are also represented in the collection.

After 1530, every executor of a will was required to provide an inventory of the deceased’s goods, together with their value; after 1782, these inventories could still be produced by request, but they were no longer legally required. The inventories listed the deceased’s personal property, such as furniture and clothing, cash, shares, debts owing or owed, crops, livestock, tools used by the deceased in his trade or occupation, stock-in-trade, and numbers of slaves. Sometimes there were separate inventories of specific items, such as of leases, mortgages etc.

These records are linked to an index on the Durham University website. Fill in as much information as you know and click on Search Database. The results will provide a link back to the images and/or give you the reference number to look within FamilySearch.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

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What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Collection Content

Sample Image

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  1742 Probate Inventory