Phillip Hancock born 04/01/1835 (married Jane Heale) was the son of Hannah Harbet and Phillip Hancock, but have recently seen a copy of the birth registration
+ There was never ever registration of birth prior to September of 1837, only baptism entries in the parish registers. Birth registration has no bearing on faith followed.
+ After intro Sept 1837, registration of birth was by law (in theory within 6 weeks, in practise ~ anytime, sometimes never, as I know to my cost). Registration Index's are index'd by Quarter where and when the event was registered, not by date or place where the event occured.
+ Baptism was always by choice (never by common law, one could argue except perhaps pre Civil War) and could take place at any age in any church/chapel in any location. Outside of the customary short period after birth, I can shown baptism post 1711 'ish in Pembrokeshire from almost any age from 6 months to the baptism per the P.R. of "An Old Lady aged approx 80 years" who at the time was on her death bed.
+ It is rare for the occupation of the mother at a baptism of a natural birth to be given, normally occupation just gives "single woman". That said where the baptism shows reputed father and the mother, occupations are sometimes shown along with their abodes. This helped at the time to a) Get support off the father, or b) which parish the mother can be returned to for parish relief.
+ There is always a better than 50 - 50, chance that the birth of a natural child to a single mother did not take place in the parish or home of the mother's parental abode. Again Pembrokeshire examples show single mothers leaving Pembs for up the valleys or just to a neighbouring parish or village of relations, for the delivery and then returning to live at the parents.
+ With luck the mothers mrge can then be found at a later date after child birth either to the reputed father or in other cases to a "new man". Where the mrge was to a new man, if they are very young, the child (or children) may well just take/be given the mothers new mrge surname, without recourse to any offical document, again examples can be shown in Pembrokeshire.
+ Unfortunately the mrge of 1811 will not show father's name or occupations, but a hint may be seen in the wittness to the event. New type proforma P.R.'s where introduced in 1813, however it would still be the into of yet new proforma P.R.'s in 1837 when fuller details whould be entered, however Baptism and Burial would basiclly stay the same, with the amount of info added dependent on what the Vicar/Minister wanted to add in the register margins (a great place to find extra unexpected information).
+ Phillip Hancock burial 1834 was probably born in the county circa 1781.
End of Waffle.
Rgds
Owen Ap Benfro
Author
Topic: Hester HANCOCK (Read 3943 times)