UK Probate Records: How to Search, Order and Research Wills

At a glance

• Centralised system begins: 12 January 1858, when the Court of Probate Act 1857 replaced the church courts with a single Principal Probate Registry for England and Wales.
• Cost of a standalone official copy: £16 per document, ordered online or by post through the GOV.UK probate search service — this rose sharply from a long-standing £1.50 on 17 November 2025.
• Cheaper if ordered with your application: from 13 July 2026, copies of the grant requested at the same time as a probate application cost £2 each instead of £16 — check GOV.UK for the current rate and how to request them.
• Standing search: £4 for a 6-month watch on an estate where probate has not yet been granted (check GOV.UK for the current rate).
• Public by default: once a grant is issued, the will becomes a public document under section 124 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 — anyone can search for it and order a copy, not only relatives or beneficiaries.
• Narrow exception: a district judge or registrar can direct that a will is not open to inspection under rule 58 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, but this power is used only in exceptional cases.
• Before 1858: wills were proved in a patchwork of local church courts; the most valuable estates went through the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC), whose registered copy wills survive from 1384 and are held at The National Archives in Kew.
• Different nations, different systems: Scotland (ScotlandsPeople) and Northern Ireland (PRONI) run entirely separate probate record systems. The GOV.UK service covers England and Wales only.

What counts as a "probate record"?

Probate is the legal process of confirming who has authority to deal with a deceased person's property, money and possessions — their estate. Where there is a valid will naming executors able and willing to act, the court issues a grant of probate. Where there is no will, or no executor able to act, the court issues letters of administration instead, and the person who takes on the role is called an administrator rather than an executor.

A probate record is the paper trail this process leaves behind. For deaths from 1858 onwards, the record typically includes:

• the grant itself, confirming who was given legal authority and when
• a copy of the will, if one existed and is attached to the grant
• the gross and net value of the estate at the date of death

Section 125 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 describes what you can actually obtain: either an "office copy" or a "sealed and certified copy" of a will or grant, on payment of the prescribed fee, from the registry where the will or grant documents are held (or from the Principal Registry, in certain circumstances). In practice, GOV.UK's online and postal services are how most people access this today.

Probate calendar entries record the total value of the estate rather than an itemised list of individual assets. The will itself may name specific bequests — a house, a piece of jewellery, a sum of money to a named person — but a full inventory of possessions is unusual in records from this period. Earlier ecclesiastical records sometimes go further and include itemised inventories of goods.

Why probate records are public — and the one exception

Once a grant is issued and the will is deposited at the probate registry, it becomes open to public inspection under section 124 of the Senior Courts Act 1981. In practice, this means you do not need to be a relative, executor or beneficiary to search for a record or order a copy — anyone can do it, for any reason.

That right of access is not absolute. Rule 58 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987 allows a district judge or registrar to direct that a will "shall not be open to inspection if, in the opinion of a district judge or registrar, such inspection would be undesirable or otherwise inappropriate." This power is used sparingly — historically for wills of the Royal Family, and occasionally to protect the safety or privacy of individuals named in a will in unusual circumstances. For the overwhelming majority of estates, the will and grant are simply available to anyone who searches for them.

A will that has not yet been admitted to probate — because the person is still alive, or because the estate is still being processed — remains private and is not searchable.

The two systems: before and after 12 January 1858

| | Before 12 January 1858 | From 12 January 1858 | |---|---|---| | Who dealt with probate | Around 300 local ecclesiastical (church) courts, with the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) as the most senior | A single, centralised Principal Probate Registry and district registries | | Where records are held today | The National Archives (PCC wills), plus diocesan and county record offices for lesser courts | The Probate Service (HMCTS), searchable via GOV.UK | | How to search | The National Archives' Discovery catalogue, or the relevant local record office | The GOV.UK "Search probate records" service | | Typical record contents | Registered copy will, sometimes with an itemised inventory of goods | Grant, will (if attached), and gross/net estate value | | Language | Often Latin before 1733 (except during the Interregnum, 1651–1660); otherwise mostly English | English |

How to search for a probate record from 1858 onwards

1. Start with what you know. Gather the full name of the person you are researching, an approximate date of death, and where they lived. Small details help distinguish between people who share a common name, since the index is organised by surname and year.
2. Search the GOV.UK service. Use Search probate records for documents and wills to search the national probate calendar for deaths from 1858 onwards. Searching is free; you only pay when you order a copy. If you are unsure of the spelling, use a wildcard — an asterisk (*) for any number of unknown letters (Sm* catches Smith, Smyth and Smithson) or a question mark (?) for a single letter (Sm?th catches both Smith and Smyth).
3. Check the grant type before you order. Not every entry comes with a will attached. GOV.UK's results distinguish 'Probate' and 'Grant and Will' entries (which include a will) from a plain 'Administration' or 'Admon' entry (which does not, because there was no will).
4. Order a copy. A digital copy ordered online currently costs £16 — check GOV.UK for the current rate, since this fee rose sharply in November 2025. A postal search using form PA1S costs the same and includes a copy of the record and will if there is one, with a response typically within 4 weeks. Our own guide to form PA1S walks through the postal form field by field if you would rather not use the online service.
5. If the death was recent, consider a standing search instead. If someone died in the last 6 months and probate has not yet been granted, form PA1S also lets you place a standing search, currently £4, so you are told once a grant is issued. It can be extended after 6 months if needed.

A new probate record is usually online around 14 days after the grant is issued. If you are researching someone who died in the early-to-mid 1990s and cannot find them under the expected year, check the index covering 1996 onwards as well — records from 1858 to 1995 are filed under the year the grant was issued, not necessarily the year of death, and there can be a lag of a year or more.

Worked example: tracing a great-grandparent's will

Suppose you know your great-grandmother died in a Yorkshire town sometime in the 1930s, but you don't have an exact date. You would search GOV.UK by surname and a broad date range across that decade, checking each result's location and any named executors against what you already know from a death certificate or family records. If you are not sure how the surname was recorded — spelling in this period was often inconsistent — a wildcard search widens the net without you having to guess every variant. Once you find a plausible match, the grant entry itself — showing the exact date of death, address and estate value — is often enough to confirm you have the right person before paying for a full copy. If your great-grandmother's estate was small, it is also possible no probate record exists at all; not every death required one, particularly where there was little to administer.

What a probate copy actually costs in 2026

Probate copy fees have moved twice in under a year, and it is easy to quote an outdated figure without realising it.

• Until 16 November 2025: a copy of a grant or will cost a flat £1.50, a rate that had stood for a long time and, according to the Ministry of Justice's own explanatory memorandum, significantly under-recovered the true cost of providing the service.
• From 17 November 2025: the Court and Public Guardian Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2025 raised the fee for a standalone copy of a named individual's grant or will to £16 — a rise of more than 900%. This is the fee that applies if you search GOV.UK for a specific person and order a copy after the event.
• From 13 July 2026: the Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026 introduced a separate, lower fee of £2 per copy where extra sealed copies of the grant are requested at the same time as the probate application itself, rather than afterwards. If you wait and order a copy later, once the grant has already issued, the £16 fee still applies.

Both changes amend the underlying Non-Contentious Probate Fees Order 2004, which is the instrument that actually sets probate fees; the 2025 and 2026 Orders simply update the figures within it. The practical takeaway for anyone acting as an executor is to think ahead: because banks, pension providers, share registrars and the Land Registry each typically want to see their own sealed copy of the grant, requesting several copies when you apply for probate is now considerably cheaper than ordering them one at a time afterwards. Standing searches, at £4 for a 6-month watch, are a different fee entirely and were not affected by either change. All of these figures are set by statutory instrument and reviewed periodically — always check GOV.UK for the current amount before you apply or pay.

Pre-1858 records: the ecclesiastical courts and The National Archives

Before 12 January 1858, every will had to be proved by a church court, and which court depended on where the person died, the value of their goods, and how those goods were spread geographically. The Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) was the most senior of these courts, dealing with wealthier individuals across the south of England and most of Wales, and — significantly for family historians researching relatives who travelled — with the estates of people who died at sea or abroad while holding property in England or Wales. A separate Prerogative Court of York covered the north of England.

PCC wills survive in series PROB 11 at The National Archives in Kew, covering 1384 to 12 January 1858. These are registered copy wills — clerks' copies of the original probates, written into volumes — rather than the original documents. They can be searched through The National Archives' Discovery catalogue by name, occupation, place, keyword and date range, and viewed for free in person at Kew. Digital download availability and cost can vary by record and account type, so check the current terms on The National Archives website before you order online.

Wills proved in a lesser local court, rather than the PCC, are not held by The National Archives at all — they are usually held by the relevant county record office or diocesan archive instead, so identifying the right court matters before you start searching locally.

A practical note for anyone working with the oldest documents: before 1733, court judgments and probate clauses were often written in Latin (with the exception of the Interregnum period, 1651–1660, when English was used). The wills themselves are usually in English, though French, Dutch or other European-language wills carry an authenticated translation in the PCC copies. The National Archives publishes its own guidance on reading old handwriting and Latin if you need it.

Wills of people who died abroad, at sea, or in the armed forces

If an ancestor died abroad or at sea while holding property in England or Wales, and their death was before 1858, check the PCC records first — this was precisely the kind of estate the PCC was set up to handle.

For deaths after 1858 where the person died in another country, the position depends on where. The Colonial Probates Act 1892 allows a grant of representation made in certain Commonwealth countries and territories to be "resealed" by an English probate registry, after which it has the same legal effect as an English grant. The specific list of qualifying jurisdictions — around 70 in total — is set out in the Colonial Probates Act Application Order 1965, secondary legislation made under the 1892 Act; it is not a general rule for every death abroad. The application procedure itself is governed by rule 39 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987: it must be made on paper (form PA1P if there is a will, or PA1A if there is not — resealing cannot currently be applied for through the online probate service), the grant must be accompanied by a certified copy of any will, and an Inland Revenue affidavit or account must be lodged with the application. Where the country in question is not on the qualifying list, the personal representatives normally need to apply for a fresh English grant instead of relying on resealing.

Separately, anyone researching a relative who died while serving in the British armed forces between 1850 and 1986 can search a dedicated index at Find a soldier's will on GOV.UK. This is a distinct service from the main probate search, with its own fee structure, historically much lower than the standard £16 copy fee — check GOV.UK for the current amount before you pay. Not every result is a full will — some are only a short letter or set of instructions.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: separate systems

The GOV.UK probate search service, and everything above, applies to England and Wales only. Scotland has its own confirmation process, with records held by the National Records of Scotland and searchable through ScotlandsPeople. Northern Ireland's probate records are held separately by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). If your research crosses these borders — common for families that moved around the UK — you will need to search each system independently; a record in one does not appear in the others.

Building a fuller picture: cross-referencing other records

A will or grant rarely tells the whole story on its own. Combining it with other sources tends to produce the richest picture:

• Census returns confirm where a family lived and who else was in the household at a given date, which can help you narrow down which of several same-named people you are looking at.
• Parish registers (baptisms, marriages, burials) can confirm relationships named in a will, such as "my daughter" or "my nephew."
• Newspaper announcements sometimes reported deaths and, occasionally, the broad terms of a notable estate.
• Land and property records can corroborate a bequest of a specific house or parcel of land.

A bequest to a named nephew, for example, can open up a whole new branch of a family tree, and witness names on older wills sometimes reveal neighbours or close friends worth investigating in their own right.

If your research uncovers a dispute — for instance, you believe a will has been wrongly withheld, or you have concerns about how an estate is being administered — our guide on caveats in probate explains the formal mechanism for raising a concern before a grant is issued. If your question is about what a named beneficiary is entitled to see or receive, see our guide on beneficiary rights in probate.

Common research problems — and what to try

• You can't find a record you expect to exist. Not everyone's estate went through probate, particularly where assets were modest or passed automatically to a joint owner. Try a wildcard search on the surname (Sm* or Sm?th) to catch spelling variants, and widen the date range.
• The date of death doesn't match the year you're searching. For 1858–1995, records are filed by the year the grant was issued, which can be a year or more after the date of death — check the surrounding years, and the 1996-onwards index for deaths in the early-to-mid 1990s.
• You suspect the person died outside England and Wales. Check whether a resealed grant exists (limited to the roughly 70 jurisdictions on the qualifying list) or whether a fresh English grant was applied for instead. For older cases, check whether the PCC handled the estate.
• The record you find has no will attached. An 'Administration' or 'Admon' entry means there was no will — the estate was distributed under the intestacy rules, so there is nothing further to order beyond the grant itself.
• You need a will proved before 1858 and can't find it at The National Archives. It may have been proved in a lesser local court rather than the PCC — try the relevant county record office or diocesan archive.

What to do next

1. Decide which system applies. Confirm the death was in England or Wales, and work out whether it falls before or after 12 January 1858 — this determines which archive and search route you need.
2. Search for free before you pay. The GOV.UK probate calendar search, and The National Archives' Discovery catalogue, are both free to search — only ordering a copy or a download typically carries a fee.
3. Check the current fee before you order — and whether timing helps. A standalone copy currently costs £16, but copies requested alongside a probate application currently cost £2 each. If you are the executor and know you will need several copies, ordering them with your application rather than afterwards can be considerably cheaper — always check GOV.UK for the up-to-date figures.
4. Widen your search terms if you draw a blank. Vary spellings using a wildcard, extend the date range, and consider that the record might be filed under the year of the grant rather than the year of death.
5. Cross-reference with other genealogical sources — census returns, parish registers, land records and newspapers — to confirm you have the right person and to build out the wider family picture.
6. Take advice if the research turns up a legal question. If what you find raises a genuine dispute — over the validity of a will, who should have been notified, or what a beneficiary is entitled to — that is a different question from records research, and it is worth getting a plain-English steer before you act.

This guide provides general information about how to search and access probate records in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The law and fees described were accurate as at August 2026 and are subject to change — always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the most current position.

Last reviewed: August 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: August 2027 or on legislative change.