John Longmuir/more Dufftown Banff

[patDEN]

Seeking the birth or bap entry for John Longmuir/more/moor born or bp 14 Feb 1836 Mortlach Dufftown Banff... son of Isabel[la] Mitchell & John Longmuir/more/moor.
The above date has been attributed [in Australia] as the bd or bap date of my gggrandfather, John Longmore ...but I cannot find an entry in Scottish records to confirm this date!
Years ago I searched parish registers and more recently I have trawled ScotlandsPeople and Libindx... to no avail.  Recently I noted that on his records to Australia in 1859, he gave his religion as Baptist.
I am hopeful someone can let me know if Baptist christening records exist for Dufftown?  If so, where may I locate them?

Your time very much appreciated
patDEN

[Forfarian]

I think you can be fairly sure that if he was a Baptist he must have changed his religious denomination since his baptism. I am 99.9% certain that there was no Baptist congregation in Mortlach at that time.

There was a Roman Catholic congregation, and I believe that its registers are on SP. There may have been some Episcopalians. The available Episcopalian registers for the area have been indexed at http://libindx.moray.gov.uk/mainmenu.asp, but I can't get into it this morning.

He could have been illegitimate, in which case there could be some information (which would not include baptism details) in the Mortlach Kirk Session minutes. These are in the National Archives of Scotland www.nas.gov.uk and not yet available online.

You may have to admit defeat and accept either that he was not baptised, or that if he was the record, if any, has not survived.

It may be that the earliest record you are going to find is the 1841 census. There is a 5-year-old John Longmuir in the household of James and Isabella Mitchell, both aged 61, in Castle or Balvenie Street, Mortlach. See http://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl (As he is apparently with grandparents, this does point to him being illegitimate.)

[patDEN]

Many thanks for your input, Forfarian.  I agree, it is likely that John Longmore was illegitimate.  He was with his maternal grandparents in both the 1841 & 1851 Census, while his mum, Isabella, was working nearby as a farm servant in Cluneymore in 1841 then by 1851, she is living at Slackbuie crofts Boharm with her husband, James Taylor and family. 
Thanks for the information re the Baptist denomination not being around in 1836 in Mortlach... I will not go down that pathway!  I also tried to get onto libindx earlier and couldn't do so.  Will check again later and see if I can locate the whereabouts of the Episcopalian registers.  I did organise for a researcher to look at the Mortlach Kirk Session minutes some years ago ... as luck would have it, they are not extant for the year of 1836!
John Longmore married Lillias Grant Findlay in Grantown INV in 1853.  The marriage entry from the registers state he is from the parish of Speymouth, Moray.  When John & Lillias migrated to Australia in 1859, John stated that both his parents were living in Banffshire.
Of course, my real interest in locating John Longmore's birth entry is that it just might lead me to his father.  At the moment, my Longmore line stops right at 1836!