The Court of Probate Act 1857 ( 20 & 21 Vict. c. 77) was an act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

that transferred responsibility for the granting of

probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...

, and letters of administration, from the

ecclesiastical court In organized Christianity, an ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain non-adversarial courts conducted by church-approved officials having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. Histo ...

s of

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

to a new civil Court of Probate. It created a Principal Probate Registry in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

( Somerset House) and a number of district probate registries. It was followed by th
Court of Probate Act 1858
both acts were repealed in 1982.

Legacy

Sections 70 to 80 of the act were repealed by section 56 of, and part I of the second schedule to, the Administration of Estates Act 1925 ( 15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 23).

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Herber, Mark (2004). ''Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History'', p. 214. Sutton Publishing.

External links

HMCS Probate Service
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1857 Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament Probate courts {{UK-statute-stub