f a person
died possessed of property lying entirely within the diocese where he
died, probate or proof of the will is made, or administration taken out,
before the bishop or ordinary of that diocese; but if there were goods
and chattels only to the amount of L5 (except in the diocese of London,
where the amount is L10)--in legal parlance, _bona notabilia_--within
any other diocese, and which is generally the case, then the
jurisdiction lies in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of the
province--that is, either at York or at Doctors' Commons; the latter, we
need hardly say, being the Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The
two Prerogative Courts therefore engross the great proportion of the
business of this kind through the country, for although the
Ecclesiastical Courts have no power over the bequests of or succession
to unmixed real property, if such were left, cases of that nature seldom
or never occur. And, as between the two provinces, not only is that of
Canterbury much more important and extensive, but since the introduction
of the funding system, and the extensive diffusion of such property,
nearly all wills of importance belonging even to the Province of York
are also proved in Doctors' Commons, on account of the rule of the Bank
of England to acknowledge no probate of wills but from thence. To this
cause, amongst others, may be attributed the striking fact that the
business of this court between the three years ending with 1789, and the
three years ending with 1829, had been doubled. Of the vast number of
persons affected, or at least interested in this business, we see not
only from the crowded rooms, but also from the statement given in the
report of the select committee on the Admiralty and other Courts of
Doctors' Commons in 1833, where it appears that in one year (1829) the
number of searches amounted to 30,000. In the same year extracts were
taken from wills in 6,414 cases.

[Illustration: ST. PAUL'S AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. (_From Aggas' Plan,
1563._)]

On the south side is the entry to the Prerogative Court, and at No. 10
the Faculty Office. They have no marriage licences at the Faculty Office
of an earlier date than October, 1632, and up to 1695 they are only
imperfectly preserved. There is a MS. index to the licences prior to
1695, for which the charge for a search is 4s. 6d. Since 1695 the
licences have been regularly kept, and the fee for searching is a
shilling.

The great Admiralty judge of