All probates and orders of registration made by and taken before any clerk of any inferior or criminal court prior to the twentieth day of February, 1885, and valid in form and substance, shall be valid and effectual, and all deeds, mortgages or other instruments requiring registration, registered upon such probate and order of registration, shall be valid. This section shall apply only to the counties of Ashe, Beaufort, Bertie, Buncombe, Cumberland, Duplin, Edgecombe, Granville, Greene, Halifax, Hertford, Iredell, Lenoir, Martin, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Northampton, Robeson and Wayne. This section applies to probates and private examinations taken before the clerks of the criminal court of Buncombe prior to February second, 1893. (1885, cc. 105, 108; 1889, cc. 143, 463; Rev., ss. 1020, 1021; C.S., s. 3340.)