Baptism Registers

You can be confident of finding more priceless biographical information about your forebears in baptism registers that were created in the late 18th century onwards

George Rose’s 1812 Act “for the better regulating and preserving parish and other registers of births, baptisms, marriages and burials in England” introduced preprinted forms to standardise the information given in parish registers, so there’s not a huge difference between the facts we glean from baptism registers from 1813 onwards and the information in birth certificates in England and Wales from 1837. The biggest handicap is that they rarely give mother’s maiden surnames, but the preprinted registers do provide both parents’ names if they were married; the father’s occupation; family’s abode; date of baptism; and the name of the clergyman who performed the ceremony.

If the child was born out of wedlock this is usually made clear, with them described as “base born”, “illegitimate” or a “natural child”. Occasionally the reputed father’s name is revealed. Sometimes the vicar added notes in the margin, like the children’s dates of birth because it wasn’t uncommon for people to be baptised a while after they were born, or for several siblings to be baptised together. A note of “Privately” next to a baptism means that instead of the person being received into the church in front of the congregation, a private ceremony was held – often the case when a child was gravely ill.

The 1783 Stamp Duties Act introduced a tax of 3p for every entry made into a register of baptism, marriage or burial, and the officiating minister could take 10 per cent for the extra work involved in collecting the tax. Specially printed ‘Register Books for Births and Christenings’ were introduced conformable to the Act, although they were not universally adopted. It was a hugely unpopular tax and resulted in more people than usual being labelled as “pauper” so that they could claim exemption (sometimes abbreviated to “P.” in the register). Others may have put off having their children baptised. The Act was repealed in 1793.

There are references to about 200,000 people, mostly from the south

‘It is usually clear if a child was born out of wedlock’

of England, in Pallot’s Baptism Index 1780–1837, which is on ancestry. co.uk and began to be compiled in 1818 by a firm of heir hunters.

Pre-1813 baptism registers vary greatly in detail. We’re at the mercy of the incumbent as to what information was included. In their scantest form they list just the date of baptism, child’s and father’s name, but if you’re lucky there’s much more information.