Baptism big bucks?

[chinakay]

Hi all,

Looking at a Bedfordshire family, it seems the parents had the children christened in pairs. Two in 1854 and two in 1859. The kids were 10, 12, 12 and 14 years old, way out of the norm. The eldest child doesn't seem to have been christened at all.

So I'm wondering, was there a fee for christening? Would parents save money "doing" them two at a time? They spent a couple of years in a workhouse and the father seems to have been a bit of a scoundrel, so the family may have been pretty strapped much of the time.

Any thoughts? Thanks,
China

[jorose]

In some years there was a small charge on christenings, but usually 'paupers' went free anyway.  It may simply have been that the family did not normally attend church, and the christenings happened in connection to entries into the workhouse or charity from the church combined with encouragement  Were they Church of England christenings or nonconformists?

http://www.gober.net/victorian/reports/religion.html - has a bit on this.

[chinakay]

Hi jorose,

It was C of E christening. Considering the rest of the family it's no surprise they wouldn't darken the door of a church if they could help it 

What a very enlightening article, though. I have bookmarked it and will go back and have a much closer look later. Many thanks for pointing me to it.

Best,
China