Abatement: A reduction in the legacies detailed in the will, usually caused by a lack of funds.

Act Book: A daily register noting the official grants of probate of Wills, Letters of Administration (Admon), and other probate business.

Administration, Letters of (usually abbreviated to Admon.): A grant to the next-of-kin (or some other person or persons) who applied to administer the property of an intestate.

Administration (Letters of) with Will annexed: A grant, usually to the next-of-kin, when the will did not specify any executors or if the executors were unable to act, or renounced, or had died. The will is then attached to the Admon Bond.

Administration Bond: Persons granted administration were legally bound to pay a set amount if they failed to administer the estate honestly and faithfully. Prior to 1733 Bonds are in latin, but the names can easily be picked out of the first two lines. The date is in the last line of the first paragraph. The first paragraph also states the amount the administrator will be required to pay if they fail to act honestly (typically twice the value of the estate). The relationship of the administrator(s) to the deceased can be located in the second paragraph, which is typically in English. Administration Bonds deal with issues such as administration of an estate, curation or tuition of a minor, or performing an inventory of the testator's possessions.

Administrator / Administratrix: A person appointed to administer an estate. In the case of an intestate, usually (but not always) the next-of-kin. (I've seen plenty of Admons in which Administration is granted to a creditor.) An Administratrix was a woman.

Admon.: See Administration, Letters of.

'Bona Notabilia': A latin term meaning considerable goods, technically £5 or more. When the deceased had 'bona notabilia' in more than one jurisdiction, a will should have been proved in a superior court.

Borough English: The ancient Anglo-Saxon custom wherein the youngest son inherited the land.

Calendar: An index, chronological within initial letter of surname, normally but not always contemporary with the records being indexed.

Caveat: A warning notice that a will is to be disputed.

Citation: A summons to appear before a court.

Codicil: a postscript to a will containing later additions or modifications.

Curation: Guardianship over minors - under 21 but over 14 (boys) or 12 (girls). Typically abbreviated as Curon. See also Tuition.

Dean and Chapter: The Chapter is the administrative body of a Cathedral. The Dean is their presiding officer. The Dean & Chapter held peculiar jurisdiction over parishes in the patronage of that cathedral and had jurisdiction during the vacancy of the higher court.

Devise: Disposition of real property.

Diocese: The ecclesiastic district over which a bishop has authority.

Exchequer: This term is unique to Yorkshire and refers to probate jurisdiction for the Diocese of York. Exchequer probates were normally handled by Rural Deaneries.

Executor / Executrix (often abbreviated to Exor): A person appointed by the testator to carry out the provisions of a will. Male = Executor, female =Executrix.

Folio: a group of pages - more than two and less than sixteen. Probate indexes typically refer to folio numbers as opposed to page numbers. These folio numbers typically appear on every other page.

Gavelkind: The equal division of property among the sons of the deceased. This practice was not permitted in England under Norman rule, as it divided the estate. The practice did continue in Ireland after the Norman invasion.

Grant: Approval of the submission of the executor or administrator, denoting probate or letters of administration.

Guardianship: See Curation and Tuition.

Heir: Originally the person(s) (typically the eldest son) legally entitled to inherit the real property of the deceased. Other next of kin could only inherit personal property.

Honour: See Manor

Inhibition: The period during the visitation of a Bishop to an Archdeaconry, when the Archdeacon's court would be closed and probate business conducted in the Consistory Court. In theory the visitation of an Archbishop to a Diocese would have the same effect on a Consistory Court, but in post-medieval times this was likely to be 'pro forma' only. Some peculiars were entirely exempt from visitation and inhibition, others were subject to visitation by a Dean or a Dean and Chapter. Visitations would normally last several months at intervals of several years.

Infra: latin term meaning below or under. For example, in referring to the value of an estate a calendar might include this notation:  inf: 5 £

Intestate: A person who died without making a will.

Inventory: A list of personal and household goods left by the deceased, with their appraised value. Occupation was usually given, or can be inferred from tools of trade. They were common in the later 16th and 17th centuries, but became much less detailed and less common in the 18th century.

Legacy: Technically the disposition of personal property, but the term eventually came to be used for both real and personal property.

Liberty: See Manor

Manor: Occasionally manorial courts had peculiar or exempt jurisdiction over a parish or part of a parish. An Honour (cf. Knaresborough, Yorks.) or Liberty (cf. Frampton, Dorset) might be a group of manors with such exempt jurisidiction.

Nuncupative will: A will made orally, normally by a testator on his deathbed, written down and sworn to by witnesses, but not signed by the deceased.

Overseers: Those assigned by the testator to oversee the administration of the estate.

Peculiar: A parish or group of parishes, not necessarily adjacent or even in the same district or county, which were usually exempt from the testamentary jurisdiction of the Archdeaconry and often the Consistory Court. Ecclesiastical peculiars were often subject to a Dean or Dean and Chapter, though they might be administered by a locally appointed official; a Bishop's peculiar might be administered by the Consistory Court; a number were royal or Archbishop's peculiars, usually locally administered; and there were some lay, manorial or collegiate peculiars.

Personalty: Personal property (goods, chattels, credits, etc.) as opposed to real property. Originally, only personalty (moveable property) could be bequeathed, and such a document is technically known as a testament.

Prebend: A Prebend or Prebendary is a priest on the staff of a Cathedral. If he presides over a Peculiar, the court is referred to as a Prebendal Court.

Prerogative Court: The Provincial Court. See Province.

Primogeniture: The practice of conferring land on the eldest son without subdivision, thereby leaving an estate intact for centuries. The Normans brought this practice with them when they conquered England.

Probate: From the Latin probare (to approve or prove). An official act of a court declaring the will to be legally binding and granting the Executor(s) the right to carry out its terms.

Probate Act: The record of probate, entered into the Act Book.

Proved: A will has been proved when probate has been granted.

Province: The Dioceses over which an Archbishop has authority, ie, before 1858, in England and Wales, the provinces of Canterbury and York, and in Ireland, the province of Aimagh. The Prerogative Courts of the Archbishops had superior jurisdiction to all others, and Canterbury was superior to York.

Realty, Real Property, Real Estate: Property or interests in land, as opposed to personalty. Originally, most realty (heritable property) could not be divided, or there were limitations on its bequest, therefore the disposition of real property does not usually appear in early probate documents.

Registers and Registered Wills: Volumes of copy wills, made at the time of probate. It is these the searcher will normally see, though sometimes only original wills are available. At times only the registered copies survive. These are not to be confused with archbishops' and bishops' registers, which record their provincial and diocesan activities, but also include occasional wills, particularly in medieval times.

Renunciation: When an executor declines to apply for probate.

rpt: unique to Yorkshire probate records, this abbreviation indicates there was no Inventory filed with the will

See: Often used as a synonym for diocese, though technically the seat of the bishop or the diocesan centre.

'See Vacancy' or 'Sede Vacante': Vacancy of the See.

Sentences: The final judgment on a disputed will, often entered in an act book.

Testament: Normally a synonym for a will, but technically a document which excludes realty (heritable property).

Testator: A man who has made a will. A testatrix is a woman.

Tuition: Guardianship over minors - under 15 (boys) or 13 (girls). Typically abbreviated as Tuon. See also Curation.

Vacancy: A break in the official business of the court on the death or translation of the bishop or other chief official. The court might be closed and business carried on in another court, but often this was 'pro forma' only, as the same actual officials carried on, powers from the alternative court being delegated to them.

Will: A written document by which a person declares his or her intent for the disposition of property and rights after his or her death, normally signed and witnessed. Originally a will was used to dispose of only real property, and a testament was used to dispose of personal property. Eventually the two documents were combined, hence the phrase "last will and testament." Eventually the two terms came to be synonymous.