Finding Sussex Wills - Lewes

Date: After 1527 to before 1858
Location: Lewes, Sussex, England

This free space page sets out the method of locating both pre-1660 and post-1660 wills lodged within the Jurisdiction for the Consistory Court for the Archdeaconry of Lewes includes the whole of East Sussex except for the peculiars of South Malling and Battle, and includes the West Sussex parishes of Beeding, Crawley, Cowfold, Henfield, Ifield, Shermanbury, Old and New Shoreham, Southwick and Woodmancote, and held on Family Search.

Firstly you need to use the Index available on Family Search and is a copy of the original held by the East Sussex Records Office (ESRO). This one is for Lewes wills and split in 2 sections, pre-1660 and post-1660 up to 1858.

Pre-1660 wills

The pre-1660 wills are indexed in the "Index Nominum" between images 197 and 239. For instance the Culpepper wills are on image 208 (page 469), here Culpepper entries.

There are two entries for R (Richard), page 137 and page 292. Scroll back through the pages to find the required page, in this case p.137 is image 83 of 1036. Look down the list and we find Richard Culpepper's entry and luckily it has a hand written will number, 51. If the will is not numbered it is usually not available for that year.

Next you need to access the Family Search page for Lewes Probate wills, found here. Lewes wills on Family Search

All available years are listed starting in 1527. NB - Not many early wills listed in the index have survived, especially before 1550. But you may find some.

Richard Culpepper's will was proven in 1603 so scroll down the page until you see the section for Original wills, 1598-1602, 1603-1604, click on the image icon to open the folder. Given the file covers 7 years you'll need to scroll through images until you get to the 1603 section, and then locate will number 51. This is found here. Will of Richard Culpepper, the will is located on image 652 of 902, and the following image 653.

Repeat the process for any other surname. Just remember that any wills not numbered for some years may not be available. But also if all of the wills for certain years are unnumbered then it might mean you need to do a manual browse through all images to find the relevant will, and tend to be in date order of the date of grant of probate. Any will listed on the ESRO catalogue search will be available there, at Falmer, often on microfilm,

Post-1660 wills up to 1858

All of the post-1660 are easier to find.

For example this is the link to the page listing Bennett post-1660 wills. Bennett index, image 283 of 1036.

If you look through the list you'll see John Bennet yeoman, Keymer 1758. look across to the far right column and there is the will number, 65.

Then use this link to access the Probate records for Lewes also on FS (same link as above) Lewes wills on Family Search.

In this case scroll down until you find the folder for Original Wills 1758-1763 click on the image icon to open the folder then browse through the images until you find will number 65, look for the large number in the bottom left hand corner of the page, and there is one for John Bennett. Will of John Bennet

To find other surnames, scroll through the Index again and repeat the above process.

Hope that makes sense? Happy reading.

Regards Colin.

Return to the Sussex Team wills page.