Probare

1.

In Saxon law, to claim a thing as one's own.

Jacob. 2.

More recently, to,make proof, as in.

PROBATE.

Formal, official proof. The word is particularly applied to wi Us, meaning the approval of the sufficiency of the will by the proper court, or the exemplified copy (with accompanying certificates), given in attestation of this approval. English probate is obtained by the executor, and is either in common form, which is only upon the executor's own oath before the ordinary or his surrogate, or per testes, in more solemn form of law, in case the validity of the wiU be disputed. When the will is so proved, the original must be deposited in the registry of the court; and a copy thereof on parchment is made out under its seal, and delivered to the executors, together with a certificate of its having been proved, — all which together is usually styled the probate.

2 Steph. Com. 202.

The copy of the w Ul, made out in parchment or due form, under the seal of thp ordinary or court of probate, and usually delivered to the executor or administrator of the deceased, together with a certificate of the will's having been proved, is most properly called the probate; but the word is constantly used for the act or proceeding of proving a wUL Probate court In many of thp United States, court of probate, or probate court, is used as the title of the court having general probate jurisdiction; that is, to take proof of wills, to issue letters testamentary, letters of guardianship and of administration, to superintend the administration of estates and the accountings of representatives and trustees, and many cognate matters. The same jurisdiction is exercised in other states by orphans' or surrogates' courts. To this strictly probate jurisdiction is often added a limited jvirisdiction in civil or criminal actions. Courts under the title of court of probate, or probate court, exist in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vermont. In England, a court of probate was ferred the testamentary jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts.

2 Steph. Com. 192.

By the judicature acts, this tribunal is merged in the high court of justice. Probate duty, or tax. A charge or impost laid upon decedent estates towards the support of government, and collected in the form of a payment required as a condition of admitting the will to proof; a duty or tax imposed on proof of wills.