"In the course of its proceedings, the Society has had brought under its notice the manner in which the regulations of the Prerogative Office in Doctors' Commons interfere with the accuracy and completeness of works in the preparation of which the Council is now engaged, and with the pursuits and labours of all other historical inquirers; and they beg leave respectfully to submit to your Grace the results of certain investigations which they have made upon the subject. "Besides the original wills deposited in the Office of the Prerogative Court, there is kept in the same repository a long series of register books, containing copies of wills entered chronologically from A.D. 1383 to the present time. These registers or books of entry fall practically into two different divisions or classes. The earlier and the latter books contain information suited to the wants of totally different kinds of persons, and applicable to entirely different purposes. Their custody is also of very different importance to the office. The class which is first both in number of books and in importance contains entries of modern wills. These are daily consulted by relatives of testators, by claimants and solicitors, principally for legal purposes, and yield a large revenue to the office in fees paid for searches, inspections, and copies. The second class, which comprises a comparatively small number of volumes, contains entries of ancient wills, dated before the period during which wills are now useful for legal purposes. These are never consulted by lawyers or claimants, nor do they yield any revenue to the office, save an occasional small receipt from the Camden Society, or from some similar body, or private literary inquirer. "With respect to the original wills, and the entries of modern wills, your memorialists beg to express clearly that this application is not designed to have any reference to them. Your memorialists confine their remarks exclusively to the books of entries of those ancient wills which have long and unquestionably ceased to be useful for legal purposes. "These entries of ancient wills are of the very highest importance to historical inquirers. They abound with illustrations of manners and customs; they exhibit in the most authentic way the state of religion, the condition of the various classes of the people, and of society in general; they are invaluable to the lexicographer, the genealogist, the topographer, the biographer,--to historical writers of every order and kind. They constitute the most important depository in existence of exact information relating to events and persons of the period to which they relate.