Excerpt from Calendars of Wills and Administrations Relating to the Counties of Devon and Cornwall: Proved in the Court of the Principal Registry of the Bishop of Exeter, 1559-1799, and of Devon Only, Proved in the Court of the Archdeaconry of Exeter, 1540-1799 IT is somewhat difficult for anyone unfamiliar with the records in the Probate Registry at Exeter to find his way through the intricacies of the various calendars, so the following notes are offered chiefly as a guide for beginners. Assuming that the searcher knows the residence of the testator or intestate, and the approximate date of his death, he may learn from the accompanying descriptive list in which calendars search should first be made for the probate of the will, or the ad ministration of the estate, and as a rule he should search (i) the calendar of the Archidiaconal Court in whose jurisdiction the residence was situated, (2) the calendar of the Bishop's Principal Registry, and (3) that of his Consistory Court. But if this search should fail to disclose the record of the desired will or administration, he should patiently examine one calendar after another; for, as has been well said, the method adopted by the registrars of the various courts in the old days resembled a game of 'grab, ' each one desiring to enter a cause in his own court, probably with an eye to the fee. This frequently resulted in the entry of a will and various copies of the same in several courts, to the discomfort, no doubt, of the heirs and to the diminution of the estate. It will be seen how this was possible through the overlapping of the different jurisdictions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.