Only father's name on baptism records, Falkirk 1787

[frankie-d]

I have an image of a double-page from Falkirk baptisms in 1787. Each page has been divided into 2 columns with the letters CPW written vertically, denoting Child, Parents & Witnesses, 6 records per column. Of the 24 records on the image 7 contain only the name of the father. Does anyone know why this would happen? Have attached a crop of the image showing 2 adjacent records.

[MonicaL]

There were some Parish clerks who adopted this style for recording births and/or christenings in the Old Parish Registers in the 18th C sadly. Also very common in Aberdeenshire at this time 

Monica

[Forfarian]

Does anyone know why this would happen?

Because the mothers were not seen as important enough to have their names recorded for posterity?

[sancti]

Quite a lot in Avondale too

[Gadget]

Dumfries is another

Despite their limitations, at least most of the Eng & Wales oprs have a first name for the mother.


Gadget

[ecksdochter]

Arngask in Fife/Kinross/Perthshire is the same. No wonder Women's Lib came into being!
               Regards,     Dod.

[frankie-d]

Thanks for the replies.

I also have some baptism records from Cambuslang c1750 where only the father and child are named but this is different. There are 24 baptisms on the double page, 17 show the child, 2 parents and 2 witnesses, the other 7 only show the father's name. I didn't want to post the whole image for copyright concerns, but have posted 2 records, the upper one has the 5 names, the lower one only names the father, not even the child. I wondered if they were maybe births out of wedlock or if maybe a fee had to be paid and the registrar wouldn't record all the details until the money had been handed over.

Any other ideas?