We hold copies of wills and deeds of many Weardale residents.
Wills We have a growing collection of copies and transcripts of wills of Weardale residents or of people with strong Weardale connections.
There are currently over 1600 images of wills, ranging in date from 1569 to 1974, of which over 1000 have been fully transcribed.
We have started a project to transcribe Weardale wills for the period 1650 to 1858, using images of the original wills which have recently been made available on the internet, via the Northeast Inheritance Project of Durham University.
Deeds
We have collected several sets of deeds outlining the transfers of land and property within and between families, in some cases over several centuries.
Most are concerned with land in and around the Westgate area, and in that respect can be regarded as following on from the deeds and other documents contained in the famous “Weardale Chest”, the subject of one of the museum’s displays.
