WILLS are too obvious a source of information to need a word of comment. At Somerset House is the most important and largest collection, viz., those of the province of Canterbury. The original wills in this office begin in 1404, and the transcripts in 1383. They are complete only from December, 1660. In the office at York, for that province, the wills begin in 1590, and the transcripts in 1389. Owing to the probate privileges enjoyed by the various ecclesiastical courts, there were not only registries for wills in every diocese, but numerous peculiar and exempt jurisdictions in each diocese. The dates at which wills begin in the different minor registries are so very varied, and their condition and facilities, or even possibilities, of search so multifarious, that it is impossible to give any useful abstract. The Report on Public Records for 1837, and Sir Harris Nicolas’ “Notitia Historica,” should be consulted. The power of probate was taken away from the ecclesiastical courts by the Act of 1857. The little-known RECUSANT ROLLS of the time of Elizabeth, give information as to the humblest as well as the wealthiest parishioner who refused to attend the services of the Established Church. These, and many other similar class of documents, relative to the fining and other grievous penalties attached to profession of the Roman Catholic faith, extending up to a recent date, are to be found at the P. R. O. Records of ATTAINDERS, FORFEITURES, SEQUESTRATIONS, and PARDONS, some from the time of Edward II., will also be found at the same office, and may be consulted with advantage by those tracing personal history, if there is any cause to suspect their complicity in any of the multitude of baronial feuds, rebellions, or religious persecutions that led to the existence of so large a class of offenders. Sims’ “Manual” should be consulted for exhaustive lists of this class of documents, as well as for numerous lists of GENTRY and FREEHOLDERS of different dates, pertaining to their respective counties. MUSTER ROLLS, which give the names, rank, dwelling, and often other particulars, of those able to bear arms in each county, may be of interest to the local historian. The earliest of these returns, now at the P. R. O., are of the reign of Henry III.; there are great deficiencies up to the time of Henry VIII., but from that reign to the time of Charles II, they are very voluminous. Lists of SHERIFFS, MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT, and MAYORS OF BOROUGHS, have been printed for almost every county from an early date, and can readily be found at public libraries. The names of lords of the manor, or other individuals connected with the special parish treated of, should always be collated with such lists, in order to see if they held any of these important offices.