Introduction
This is a list of the 26 British subjects living in Argentina between 1843 and 1854 who registered their will at the British Consulate in Buenos Aires. A very short summary of the details is here added.

In the case of seven of the wills, there was further information of particular interest to family historians. This have been added at the foot of the page.

The text of these wills survive in The National Archives, Kew, where the Embassy and Consulate records were later deposited. The actual source is the entry book of notarial acts for the years 1832 to 1854 (FO 446/28). This particular entry book stands out because the pages on which the details of the wills were written still survive in the volume.

Lamentably, in the other three entry books of notarial acts, the pages containing the text of the wills have been been removed at some stage in their history. Only the names appearing in the indexes give us an idea of what has been lost.

The FO 446 series are stored at The National Archives, Kew, and can be consulted by readers. Alternatively, photocopies can be ordered by post, giving the specific details of the location of the will given in the list below.

In The National Archives, of particular interest to family historians are the following volumes.
Entry books of protests
FO 446/3, 4 and 5 covering the years 1826-1845;
Entry books of notarial acts
FO 446/28 (1832-54), 446/6 (1855-67), 446/29 (1867-86) and 446/30 (1886-1900).

This website has extracted much useful data from these volumes and no doubt there is more to find by future researchers. The following webpages have been populated in this way:

Declarations of the intention to marry, 1849-75;
Appointment of Curators for those who died intestate, 1842-86;
Transcripts of disasters occurring to British merchant shipping, 1827-40;
Wills of British subjects registered at the Consulate, 1843-54.

In the table below, the abbreviation 'rev.' indicates that the text of that will either begins or ends on the reverse side of the folio.

Details extracted from some of the wills

John Thompson
married 1: [unknown], their child: George;
married 2: Martha Brocksopp, their children: John, Susan, Henry, Martha, Lot;
married 3: Phoebe Rowe, their children: Phoebe, Helen, Anastasia Augusta Francesca.

John Downes
he had a natural daughter by Feliciana Garcia (the will does not make clear whether he married her or not), who on her father's death remained, together with her mother, under the guardianship of her aunt and uncle, Robert and Ann Macalister.

Alexander Mackinlay
his mother was Anna;
his sister was Mary Margaret Mackinlay;
his brothers were Edmund, William and Daniel Mackinlay;
his aunt Isabella Mackinlay;
his cousin Mrs John Laing.

Thomas Kidd
wife: Hannah and their daughter Ann;
Hannah had been previously married to William Purdom Devitt, and by him had 2 sons, William and Richard.

George Haymes
wife: Benjamina Necochea de Haymes; they had children;
lived in a quinta at Hueco de los Sauces.

John Malcolm
married Ann Simons, native of Buckinghamshire (who had predeceased him);
their children are John, Donald, Eliza amd Caroline;
their property: Plaza 25 de Mayo 9, Buenos Aires, and a chacra on the right bank of the Arroyo Maldonado in the Partido de San José de Flores.

Thomas Keating
Thomas Keating died 11/10/1854.