This collection of abstracts of wills and administrations relating to Devon, Cornwall and Somerset people was compiled by Cliff Webb and typed up by Rachel Taylor. The abstracts themselves can be found on the library shelves at DE/G 23 under the title Will Abstracts from the Fothergill Collection at the Society of Genealogists, 1547-1834. The index that appears here was compiled by Richard Grylls as part of the Devon Wills project and is reproduced with his permission.

The original abstracts were made probably in the early 1900s by Gerald Fothergill (1870-1926), an eminent genealogist and historian who lived in London. His most celebrated published work was A List of eminent Ministers who went to America (1904). He specialised on emigrants, and was one of the first people to compile lists of them from documents he found in the Public Record Office (now TNA). It is not clear why he compiled abstracts of sundry Devon wills - perhaps as the result of a commission. He clearly went to Exeter and Taunton to study and abstract the wills, since almost all the wills were proved and kept in one or other of those places. His collection in fact only covers about 12 different surnames. Nonetheless, in view of the destruction of the original wills, its value is enormous.

Abbreviations used

Type

W - Will
A - Administration
I - Inventory
O – Other

Form

or - Original
co - Copy
ab - Abstract
tr - Transcript
le - List Entry

The reference refers to the page in the typed transcript on the library shelves (DE/G 23)