Material and Digital Archives: the case of wills

Abstract

This article explores one of the key questions faced by historical researchers in the twenty-first century – how to reconcile the digitisation of archives with their materiality – through a consideration of the digitisation of one of the largest and most-used archives of English and Welsh historical records: the probate records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC).1 These records, specifically the registered copies of wills made between 1384 and 1858, are used by thousands of historical researchers and genealogists every month, but the overwhelming majority of users access these records though their digital surrogates: the manuscripts are rarely viewed. Indeed, these digital surrogates are several steps removed from the original will drawn up by the scribe or scrivener, signed and sealed by witnesses and the testator, and from the sickbed in which the deceased had made their final wishes known. These digital surrogates reproduce not the original will containing the writing or marks of the scribe, testator, or witnesses, but the microfilms of the registered copies subsequently made by the church court clerk.