Famous wills in PROB 1

Background

William Shakespeare

The wills of Shakespeare and Nelson, along with twenty-six others also selected for the celebrity of the testators, were transferred to The National Archives (then called the Public Record Office) in 1964, forming the start of the series PROB 1 (pieces 1-28). During the sorting and listing of the files of original wills in the 1960s a further sixty-four wills of celebrated persons were identified and these were accessioned in 1972 as pieces 29-92 of the same series.

Browsing the famous wills

We have separated out the famous original wills from the PCC copies; they are listed in the famous wills category. They are indexed by first and last name, and by date of probate. You may find that the description contains additional information about related material. Some of the wills, including that of Jane Austen, are accompanied by affidavits sworn by witnesses attesting their authenticity, and Nelson's will is accompanied by a private diary which he wrote in September and October 1805. The description may also contain the date the original will was written, and the dates of codicils. If you wish to search rather than browse a list, you should use the advanced search.

Reading the famous wills

The National Archives and DocumentsOnline do not provide a transcription or translation service. If you have any problems reading a will you have bought, or need a translation of a Latin will, The National Archives website contains a list of independent researchers who can be contacted. It also has a list of specialists for the transcription and translation of records in Latin.

If you would like to learn Latin you can try our beginners' online tutorial. There is also a step-by-step online tutorial to teach advanced Latin. If you want to learn how to read old handwriting, you can try our online palaeography tutorial, which will correct your transcriptions line-by-line and offer helpful hints.

How do these relate to the PCC wills?

After a will had been proved by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury a copy would generally be made and returned to the executor attached by a pendent seal to the probate act authorising the executor to administer the testator's estate in accordance with the terms of the will. The original will would be filed among the records of the Court, and if the executor paid a fee a further copy would be made in the will registers. In some cases however, particularly before the mid-seventeenth century, the original will might be returned to the executor, and instead a copy would be filed with the original records of the court.

Some documents that are copies of original wills are identified as such in the description. They have been identified either because they are annotated as copies, or because the signatures of witnesses and of the testator are in the same hands as the rest of the document. In the former cases it is clear that the originals were in the custody of the Court before the copies were made.

Shakespeare's will and signatures

William Shakespeare's signature

Download William Shakespeare's will free of charge.
(Catalogue reference: PROB 1/4)

You can view the original will of William Shakespeare, the famous playwright, who died on 23 April 1616. The will dated 25 March 1616, less than a month before he died, includes bequests to his fellow actors, his neighbours in Stratford and the famous gift of his "second-best bed" to his wife. His will, which is on three pages, shows the typical style of writing at the time. It also contains three of the only surviving six examples of his signature, one of which you can see on the right.

This file is in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the image. If you don't already have it installed, it is available free from Adobe's website

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