#One Place Baptisms

It’s September and this month the Society's blogging prompt is #OnePlaceBaptisms and this is a short post about how Church of England baptisms are helpful in our studies.
Baptisms form an integral part of studies of places such as towns, villages, and parishes. They are one of the building blocks that are going to help you reconstruct the families of those who lived in you place. Regardless of where you are studying, they are vital records in the time before Civil Registration in England & Wales in 1837. It is these records that are going to give you the estimated birth years of people in the place you are studying. You may even be lucky and get an actual date of birth too.

Baptisms can also be used to create statistics, which you can show in various ways some of which are demonstrated below.

These ones from my study show the expected increase in baptisms as the population of the parish of St Mary Bourne grew. The illegitimacy rate also grew but the number of twins born dropped. In later decades when non-conformist records are more readily available this may even show a decline in Church of England baptisms at that point.

Is there are story about the Font to tell in your place? The drawing above is from 1888 and shows the Tournai Marble Font in St Peter’s Church, St Mary Bourne. The original base was replaced with a marble one in 1927[1] as shown below:

This font is from the 12^th Century and one of four in Hampshire and seven in England. It’s true origins are still a bit of a mystery but it is thought to have been a gift of Bishop Henri de Blois, the very well-connected Bishop of Winchester 1129-71

The baptism records for St Mary Bourne start in 1661 so there are over 500 years of unknown baptisms in this font! If only it could talk!

Sources

1. https://stmarybourne.org/church/
2. St Peter’s Church Booklet, published 1982
3. https://stmarybourne.org/church/

Finally, sometimes you are lucky when looking in the parish records to find little notes from the vicar’s.

In 1808 the vicar Rev’d W. Hodge tells us that on the 3^rd of April 1808 the weather was “full of snow” and that also on the 19^th April “Snow again here 3 inches deep”, 20^th April “same again” & 21^st April “none but very cold”. These little snippets of life in the past can be very helpful when telling the stories of those in the past.

Tip: Keep your eye out for old Church Guides, I have a variety for St Peter’s Church in St Mary Bourne, they get updated over the years but the different texts within them can all help you understand the focal point of people lives in the past.

Do you have a story to tell about Baptisms in your place? Then we’d love to hear from you. You might like to leave a comment on the Societies blog or on Social Media. If posting your story on Social Media don’t forget to add #OnePlaceBaptisms to your post.  Also could you write an article for the societies journal “Destinations”.