The Court of Probate was created by the Court of Probate Act 1857

Court of Probate Act 1857

The Court of Probate Act 1857 transferred responsibility for the granting of probate, and letters of administration, from the ecclesiastical courts of England and Wales to a new civil Court of Probate. It created a Principal Probate Registry in London and a number of district probate registries....

, which transferred the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts in testamentary matters to the new court so created.

The Judge of the Court of Probate also presided over the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes

Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes

The Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes was created by the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, which transferred the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts in matters matrimonial to the new court so created....

, but the two Courts remained separate entities.

On 1 November 1875, under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873

Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873

The Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 was an Act of Parliament by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1873...

 and the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1875, the Judge of the Court of Probate was transferred, as its President, to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice

High Court of Justice

The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...

.

Judges of the Court of Probate

• 6 January 1858: Sir Cresswell Cresswell
• 26 August 1863: Sir James Plaisted Wilde (from 6 April 1869, Lord Penzance)
• 14 November 1872: Sir James Hannen
  James Hannen, Baron Hannen
  James Hannen, Baron Hannen, , English judge, son of a London merchant, was born at Peckham.He was educated at St Paul's School and at Heidelberg University, which was famous as a school of law. Called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1848, he joined the home circuit...