Research

Scope and Content Note

This volume contains exemplifications, or official transcripts admissible as evidence, of wills, codicils to wills, letters testamentary granted to the executor of a will, and letters of administration granted to the administrator of an estate (in the event there was no will). Each exemplification consists of the text of the will and letters testamentary, or letters of administration, the original acknowledgement, and an acknowledgement by the governor and/or the judge or clerk of the Court of Probates that the instrument has been duly registered in the Court.

A few of the wills registered by the Court were dated during or before the Revolutionary War. Letters testamentary for such wills were granted by the royal governor, and the wills were later registered by the state Court of Probates. A small number of exemplifications contain the text of letters of administration granted when a decedent left no will. A few of the exemplified wills were made by individuals residing outside of New York.