Are Baptisms reliable. Discuss.

[bucksboy]

Guy, I was told tyhis by an archivist at Lincolnshire Archives when i first found the wedding some 14 years ago. Whether they have any supporting information I don't know. As a new researcher which I was then I did tend to take the word of archivists etc. as being gospel.

I have found a few weddings on Christmas day......I just thought it a bit unusual.  Also several baptisms also.
Not sure if they were 'free' though.

Steve.

[stanmapstone]

Stan, Please see Guy's post No.24 above regarding illegal charges by some churches

The legal position was that by the development of local custom, fees, often known as surplice fees, had become payable to parochial clergy for the performance of occasional offices. If this custom had existed from "time immemorial" then it was recognised by the common law and was legally-enforceable, and such customs were also recognised by Canon Law. However legally "time immemorial" means before 3rd September 1189, and the payment of fees could not be enforced if the custom in question did not exist, or could not have existed before this date. It was because Baptismal fees were always of doubtful legality, and difficulties could arise where the local custom was unclear, that the Baptismal Fees Abolition Act of 1872 was introduced. It was not until 1938 that legislation established parochial fees tables on a national basis for any parish when such powers was given to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
See http://www.rootschat.com/links/0anh/

Stan

[Sloe Gin]

One reason for the popularity of Christmas Day for weddings was that as it was a holiday, there was no need to take time off work.

[stanmapstone]

Winter weddings, after harvest, were chosen by many families, but avoiding December 28th (Childermass or Holy Innocents Day) which commemorated Herod's massacre of the children. The Catholic Church used to forbid marriage from the first Sunday in Advent until after the twelfth day.

Stan

[gordon5]

Interesting re holiday on Christmas day, I remember my grandfather going to work on Christmas morning. This was in Scotland in the early seventies.

New Year of course was an extended holiday

[Redroger]

Interesting re holiday on Christmas day, I remember my grandfather going to work on Christmas morning. This was in Scotland in the early seventies.

New Year of course was an extended holiday

In the rail industry Christmas Day and other bank holdays were always worked as a skeleton service was maintained. Christmas day was paid at Sunday rates, however during the 1980s or possibly earlier Christmas Day services were stopped, and since we were all off duty the Chairman of the BRB (Sir Peter Parker) took the opportunity to give us all a pep talk on National TV. In Scotland Christmas Day was a bank holiday, but Boxing Day wasn't , there it was replaced by New Years Day. Even now train services are different in Scotland on New Years Day to in the rest of the UK

[stanmapstone]

In the 1950s mining industry in the North East, Boxing Day was a working day and New Years Day was a holiday.

Stan

[Sloe Gin]

Well, obviously there are and were people who work/ed Christmas Day - the clergyman, for one    I perhaps should have said that for the majority it was a holiday.

[Humphpaul]

My lot in Barmouth had 3 girls all baptised on same day in 1840 when one was age 8 one 5 and one new born. An elder girl had been baptised in a non-com. chapel so my guess is that maybe the parents had gone back to the parish church and got the children done then.

Just a note re working on Christmas day in Scotland:- In the 1950s if a ship was due to be in Liverpool on Christmas Day when there was no cargo work, then she was sent up to Glasgow on Christmas Eve so she could work cargo there on the 25th. Happy days!
Humphpaul