Little, perhaps, need be said by way of introduction to this volume of Records of the English Catholics of 1715. Apart from the great interest and importance attaching to a collection in abstract of nearly four hundred wills and letters of administration with which it opens, the genealogical value of such unpublished and authentic documents will be at once apparent, while the Index, of course, will illustrate this in a way which nothing else can. Of the two dates given at the end of each will, the first is that of execution, and the second that of probate.
Where not otherwise stated, it may be assumed that probate was granted in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Somerset House being naturally the chief source of information. I am also under an obligation to H. F. Burke, Esq., Somerset Herald, and to Dr. J. J. Howard, for permission to inspect a MS., the property of Sir John Lawson, Bart., now in course of publication, to which occasional reference is made, and which at the present time is deposited at the College of Arms.
