One of the best ways to discover people and places in the past is to check the administrations that were granted for the estates of people who had not left a will. The ones granted by Northampton Archdeaconry Court (1667-1710) were printed decades ago as a book which can be hard-to-find.
But not to worry. The Record Society has just made it available in digital form for anyone to explore and download free of charge. Over 2,500 records are included. As well as the name, occupation and residence of the person who died, they feature details of who was granted administration, the sureties and often the value of the goods and who assessed them.
An index of persons includes over 19,000 references, so you do not need to read the whole book to track down particular individuals or surnames. There is not a printed index of places, but the PDF version has its own search facility where the word ‘Northampton‘ leads to 853 results and even ‘Faxton’ brings up 12.
Find out more at: archive.org/details/nrs0027/page/n5/mode/2up