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Post by griffith on Jun 16, 2008 14:18:25 GMT
I was speaking to a local Vicar the other day who gave some information which maybe of interest to someone.
Marriages
A person had to be baptised to be married in a C of E or C of W Church. If there is any doubt if they had been baptised they then they had to be baptised before they were married which could mean a much later baptism date than anticipated.
Until recently 2 parties had 2 be confirmed to be married in a Church but this didn't comply to non conformists.
Burials
To be buried in a Churchyard you have to be baptised, which I think still stands today. If a person wasn't baptised then it wasn't unknown for someone to dig a hole in the local churchyard in the middle of the night in order to have the person buried. With still born or infants who could die before they were baptised they could not be buried in a Churchyard legally so 'deals' were done with Undertakers to place a baby in someone elses coffin so they could have a Christian burial. Clergy were also bribed to bury these infants in a Churchyard. No records of these burials were ever recorded. Also during the hours of darkness parents discreetly buried infants in a Churchyard if they were not baptised.
Baptisms
In the Calvinist Methodist Church, children were not baptised until at least 12 years of age as they were thought to have a better understanding of the Church by that age.
Any Baptism marked as Private was carried out on the authority of the midwife, Doctors and Clergy, if it was thought that the infant would not survive.
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Post by keithj on Jun 22, 2008 19:56:43 GMT
It's not often realised today that midwives were, until very recently, licensed by the Archbishops to baptise children who were in danger of dying. They were only supposed to do it if a priest was unlikely to arrive in time, though. That happened to my mother-in-law. She was taken away and baptised by the midwife but survived - obviously! In her rush, the midwife didn't ask her parents for the names they'd chosen so she went through life with given names she and her family never used.
I don't know whether they lied or the vicar didn't ask but one of my 2 x Great grandmothers was not Christened before her marriage. Some of her siblings were but most weren't, from which I can only assume there'd been a row between their father and the local Rector. She died at quite a young age and was baptised only a few days before her death, a note in the register saying that she was in dire straits.
Keith
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