Probate

Probate is the legal process whereby a will is "proved" in a court and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased.

The granting of probate is the first step in the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person, resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under a will. A probate court decides the legal validity of a testator's (deceased person's) will and grants its approval, also known as granting probate, to the executor. The probated will then becomes a legal instrument that may be enforced by the executor in the law courts if necessary. A probate also officially appoints the executor (or personal representative), generally named in the will, as having legal power to dispose of the testator's assets in the manner specified in the testator's will. However, through the probate process, a will may be contested.

The English noun "probate" derives directly from the Latin verb probare, to try, test, prove, examine, more specifically from the verb's past participle nominative neuter probatum, "having been proved". Historically during many centuries a paragraph in Latin of standard format was written by scribes of the particular probate court below the transcription of the will, commencing with the words (for example): Probatum Londini fuit huismodi testamentum coram venerabili viro (name of approver) legum doctore curiae prerogativae Cantuariensis... ("A testament of such a kind was proved at London in the presence of the venerable man ..... doctor of law at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury...") The earliest usage of the English word was in 1463, defined as "the official proving of a will". The term "probative," used in the law of evidence, comes from the same Latin root but has a different English usage.

A representative example of a complete probate clause, from the 14th century (or earlier) onwards, added at the bottom of the office transcribed copy of a will is as follows, taken from the will of Anthony Bathurst, 1697, PROB 11/438:

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