Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536-1810. Dublin: Edward Ponsonby, 1897. First Edition. Pp ix, 512. Publisher’s Brown cloth over beveled boards, title in gilt on spine, gilt armorial device on upper cover. Top edge gilt. Covers lightly scuffed, ex library copy, with ink stamps & with occasional label residue to endpapers, otherwise in good condition. Prerogative wills up to 1810.

The prerogative Irish wills up to 1810 were almost all destroyed in the 1922 explosion at the Public Record Office in Dublin. So this work is often the only surviving evidence of what wills were processed by the court.

This index provides the name of all those who left a will, their address, rank/occupation and the date of probate. Vicars’ publication was based on the transcripts, abstracts and notes taken from the original wills by Sir William Betham, Ulster King of Arms (1779-1853) and is the only index available to his vast collection of genealogical abstracts.