Help with baptism record please

[PurpleOwl333]

Fantastic, thanks very much everyone, I've learnt a lot from your replies 

With it being a private baptism I didn't think to look but after a dig around the FamilySearch Catalog I found Lucy in the Archdeacon's Transcripts which is thankfully much easier to read. Turns out to be "Lucy daughter of John Batley & Mary his wife (late Mary Hubbard spinster) was born May 12th & baptized privately May 17th 1801."

I'd thought that "late" and "formerly" referred to the mother having been married before, but now I know that's not necessarily the case, good to know! I should've twigged that all the other entries on the sheet had the same format 

Thanks for the reminder to use FreeReg Brentor boy, highlighted two of their kiddies I hadn't got. Not sure about the Garboldisham ones, need to do a bit more digging on them.

You guys are brill, thanks! 

[Maiden Stone]

Fantastic, thanks very much everyone, I've learnt a lot from your replies 

With it being a private baptism I didn't think to look but after a dig around the FamilySearch Catalog I found Lucy in the Archdeacon's Transcripts which is thankfully much easier to read. Turns out to be "Lucy daughter of John Batley & Mary his wife (late Mary Hubbard spinster) was born May 12th & baptized privately May 17th 1801."

I'd thought that "late" and "formerly" referred to the mother having been married before, but now I know that's not necessarily the case, good to know! I should've twigged that all the other entries on the sheet had the same format 

Does the Archdeacon's Transcripts definitely say "spinster"?
Do other baptisms in parish register have "spinster" after mother's maiden name? Was occupation of father or abode of family stated for any baptism?
It's a good idea to look at other entries on same page and even a few pages before and after to understand the format and to become familiar with cleric's handwriting. A baptism register I was looking at yesterday had capital P which resembled C. The surname was common in the parish; I found 3 more examples of it among a few pages and was able to compare the writing. The register was in Latin. The priest annoyingly abbreviated the Latin words for son or daughter both to "fil" so one child I first thought was a daughter may have been a son. 

[Maiden Stone]

The Oxford Dictionary gives several meanings for late, including:

No longer having the specified status; former.

So maybe this was just the clerk's/writer's slightly offbeat way of saying it was her maiden name...

Best regards,
Karen

I have a will from 1760s in which the testator leaves a small bequest to a married woman whom I think was his niece. "...to Elizabeth married surname daughter of Richard surname late of this town...". I couldn't decide whether "late of this town" meant that: a) Elizabeth had left town (there was no matching  marriage in her home town but an outside possible one in a town 20 miles north and a removal order several years later for a widow & children from a town 20 miles south); b) Richard had left town; c) Richard was dead.  Having gathered a lot of information about the family  I concluded that a) and c) were both correct. I believe that the testator took over Richard's business which eventually passed to Richard's posthumous son, my 5xGGF.  I've never found a record of Richard's burial, only the word "deceased" after his name on his son's baptism entry. At least there's no doubt about meaning of deceased. I read it in Bishop's Transcripts; the word was missing from transcription of parish register where I'd first seen the baptism.   
Use of punctuation in documents might aid our understanding.

[PurpleOwl333]

I believe so Maiden Stone, I've attached a screenshot. I'll definitely be following your suggestion of looking at the surrounding pages, thanks. I find it amazing that these are accessible all these years later, but yeah, they can take some time to interpret for sure. 

[Maiden Stone]

Re reply #12. There's a line before the word "late" and another line after "spinster" as though the words were in brackets. Handwriting is clearer as well.