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The Blaker Society © rapes, is close to the boundary between the archdeaconries: although
BLAKER WILLS

largely lying in the modern West Sussex, half of Bramber rape was in
Lewes archdeaconry. However, the key parishes — Cuckfield, Portslade,
Preston and Shoreham, were all in Lewes rape and in Lewes
archdeaconry. Moreover, there was only one parish (Edburton) in Lewes
rape that fell within a peculiar. Therefore, if particular attention were to
be given to any of the local probate records (such as tracing ancillary
documents) those of Lewes archdeaconry would be most likely to help
with the present research.

Lewes Archdeaconry

The pre-1858 records were transferred to the newly-established
Lewes Probate Registry, from which they are now removed to East
Sussex Record Office:

Wills from 1527 (with gaps)
Probate Act Books from 1542 (with gaps)
Registered Copy Wills from 1518

A calendar of the pre-Commonwealth part of this probate archive
was printed as Calendar of wills and administrations in the Archdeaconry
Court of Lewes in the bishopric of Chichester: together with those in the
Archbishop of Canterbury’s peculiar jurisdiction of South Malling and

the peculiar of the deanery of Battle, comprising together the whole of the
eastern division of the county of Sussex and the parish of Edburton in
West Sussex : from the earliest extant instruments in the reign of Henry
VIII to the Commonwealth. Compiled by William Hamilton Hall, in 1901,
as volume 24 of the Index Library. This was compiled from the registered
copy wills, described as the ‘transcript books’:

The transcript books are numbered in a series A 1, A 2, etc.; A signifying Archdeaconry of Lewes.
There is a second series of transcripts, late in date, but in the earlier period supplemented by “bundles,”
of which some items are original wills, others loose copies. This series is known as the Deanery Wills,
those of testators from the Deanery of South Malling, a peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishops
of Canterbury. These bundles are lettered A to H; but the instruments in each bundle have been
arranged and numbered differently at different times; and in this Calendar these have been entered as
they were found. They are of course liable to rearrangement and to casual disarrangement. There is a
further peculiar jurisdiction, that of the titular dean of Battle. The books of this peculiar are called the
“Battle Books.” In addition to these are two books known as the “Chichester Books.” These books are
bound uniformly with the transcript books preserved in the Archdeaconry of Chichester at the
Chichester Probate Office. They are designated С 4 and С 11, and these volumes, 4 and 11, are wanting
in that series, the books having been sent to Lewes because their contents referred to the Lewes
Archdeaconry, not to the Chichester Archdeaconry. The book С 4 is mainly contemporary with the
Lewes Book A 1, and in part duplicates the Lewes Book numbered A 1a. There is also the series of Act
Books. These are numbered consecutively B 1, B 2, В 3, etc.; and contain administration and probate
acts, together with a small number of miscellaneous entries. Administration Acts were entered into the

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