The Chancellor had successfully claimed probate of the wills of members of the University and others, known as privileged persons, from at least the early fourteenth century. Although technically the Chancellor's Court, by the sixteenth century the Vice-Chancellor presided.
The Act 20 and 21 Victoria c.77 abolished testamentary jurisdiction of all existing courts substituting for them a single Court of Probate in London with a Principal Registry and District Registries throughout the kingdom. It ordered the deposit in future of all original wills in the Principal Registry and required the transfer of testamentary records of all existing courts to the Registry concerned, Principal or District as the case may be. The testamentary records of Cambridge were transferred to the Registry at Peterborough where they remained until returned to the University Archives in 1956.