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Authorized Form of NameProvince of Canterbury; Prerogative Court of Canterbury; -1858
Corporate NameProvince of Canterbury
TypeOfEntityCorporate
Dates-1858
CodeNA2926
SubordinatePrerogative Court of Canterbury
OtherFormsOfNamePCC; P.C.C.
ActivityUnder Archbishop John Morton (1486-1500) there is a clear mention of a Prerogative Court with its own officers. The Court proved wills of testators with goods in more than one diocese, exercising jurisdiction where the deceased had bona notabilia, namely personal property, credit or debts, to the value of £5 or more, within the jurisdiction of more than one bishop within the southern province of the church (£10 in some dioceses by special composition). The Court's jurisdiction did not extend to real estate. From the 1570s a similar court existed at York for the northern province. Where the personal estate was divided between the two provinces Canterbury dealt with the southern element; it also exercised jurisdiction where death occurred at sea or abroad.

Under the Court of Probate Act 1857 the PCC was abolished.
RelationshipsAppeal from the Court lay to the Court of Arches and, before the Reformation, to Rome. After 1534 the papal role was replaced by delegates of the Crown in Chancery (25 Hen. VIII c19), later collectively known as the High Court of Delegates, which continued to function until 1832 when its powers were transferred to the King in Council and subsequently to a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

In 1653, during the Interregnum, the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) was replaced by a Court for Probate of Wills and Granting Administrations, with jurisdiction covering the whole of England and Wales. At the Restoration in 1660 the PCC was reinstated, along with lesser ecclesiastical courts.
SourceNational Archives online catalogue

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