Calendars of Wills and Administrations Relating to the Counties of Devon and Cornwall – edited by Edward Alexander Fry and published in London 1908 by the British Record Society – lists a number of Devon and Cornwall wills that had been lost by that time. They are noted as ‘lost’ in references on this site.
Later, tens of thousands of original Devon wills were lost when the probate registry in Exeter was destroyed by bombing in 1942 [note 1]. In many cases transcriptions had been already made – including transcriptions by the genealogists listed below – otherwise they too are noted as ‘lost’ in references on this site.
Sir Oswyn Murray (1873–1936) and Olive M. Moger (1880–1861) transcribed or summarised a large number of the wills subsequently lost in 1942. Hugh Tapley Soper complied an index to Devon and Cornwall inquisitions post mortem.
Note
1. For more information read the introduction to The Devon Wills Project.