Non conformist or St Peter St Paul, Kettering, William Smith 1819

[..claire..]

There is a PCC Will of a Nathaniel Smith of NP dated 1811 is this the father of your Nathaniel. It's very lengthy. It may provide some clues.

Will have a look too see what I can find though.

Claire

[RogerP]

Many Thanks Claire. I believe there are clues that it is his father. I read the will (6/7/1811) quickly last week but I couldn't read all the words. I would love to get a copy. I think I read that the sons were Samuel, Nathaniel, Thomas, Charles. Daughters were Sarah m Will Crisp, Mary m Richd Wm Hillyer, Ann m Thom Miller I think. Samuel may have been the 1785-1866 one at NP.  A complication is that a Nathaniel Smith committed suicide at NP that year in 1811 according to newspapers inquests (April 1811), so I don't know how that matches the signing of the will.

[mgeneas]

There seems to be another son of Nathaniel, Samuel born about 1805 in Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire. He married for the second time in Northampton All Saints to Charlotte Goodman a widow, formerly Woodland in 1849.
Samuel is an agricultural implement maker and his father Nathaniel is a machine maker.

[RogerP]

Thanks. That ties in with agricultural machine makers and family names  Samuel, Nathaniel, Thomas, Charles, Sarah, Mary, Ann.

The will was signed in May 1808.  Nathaniel Smith then died in 1811, he had a lot of assets.

Did Baptists etc back then not always baptise infants? Some of the Baptists in Kettering did have infant baptisms. I wonder if non-conformist minute books are available.

[..claire..]

Hi Roger

I was involved in a post last week where the question of baptizing infants in a NC church came up in Northampton.

This is quite an interesting site

http://www.edintone.com/chapels_ministers/oundle-baptists/

claire

[PrawnCocktail]

Thankyou, Claire, for the very interesting article!

Some of the Baptist Churches do have Church Books available, but I can't see Fuller Baptist in the online catalogue yet. The online catalogue is not, however, anything like complete! You'd have to ask the NRO whether they have the Church Books for Fuller Baptist Church.

The Independent Church seems to have some copies of their early books deposited, but very patchy
(UR/KTURC/11-12), and the blurb says the originals are with Fuller Baptist.

Baptists mostly dedicate infants, rather than baptise them, somewhere in their first year of life, preferring that they wait until they can make the decision to be baptised for themselves. The Baptist registers of births are indexed on Ancestry and the IGI up to 1837, along with the other non-conformist churches. It is well worth looking at the originals on Ancestry if you can, as a few of them will even tell you who was present at the birth, or who the wife's parents were.

[RogerP]

Very helpful, thanks. My grandmother (Panther/Smith) from Kettering was a Baptist!  The agricultural engineering Smiths probably were Baptists then, except for one thing – their father owned a pub!!.  However, Nathaniel Smith junior (1819-97) said he went to the Independent Chapel Sunday School according to a 1867 news-paper cutting, and he and William (1819-95) were strongly involved in the temperance movement from the 1850s.  The only concrete record of the Smith parents (Nathaniel senior (1774?-) and Mary) is from the birth of their youngest - Charles Richard Thomas Smith - who was christened at St Peter and St Paul Kettering in Feb 1822. Since Mary (1783-1822) died in Jan 1822 (possibly a complication from childbirth) I am guessing the family wanted her buried in the cemetery at St Peter and St Paul, or there was some problem with the non-conformists. The parish record said she was 39, and Nathaniel, a cooper, was her husband.  A newspaper cutting from 1822 said she died age 37 leaving 14 children!!  Since Nathaniel senior was a cooper and had a 1818 patent for a winnowing machine, there are clues about the 14 children, but it is all a bit shadowy. There was an Emma Smith baptised 1829 and born 1811 with parents Nathaniel and Mary, so possibly this is a Baptist baptism.  10 possible children are Mary Ann (1802-), John (1805-), Samuel (1805-), Elizabeth (1807-), Emma (1811-), Nathaniel (1813-97), Henry (1815-59), William (1819-95), Robert (1821-76), Charles (1822-1902), with births in Newport Pagnell (1802-05), Leicester 1805, and Kettering (1808-22). According to a newspaper cutting, Nathaniel senior arrived in Kettering by 1808 when he set up as a cooper at the House of the Woolpack which he renamed the Sararcen’s Head Inn.  Could Baptists have owned an inn in 1808?? I have never found such shadowy ancestors!

[..claire..]

Well Roger if you believe what is written on some internet sites you would think that Baptists were fiercely anti alcohol, but did you know that a well-known Baptist minister was the inventor of bourbon whiskey — which casts some doubt that they didn't like a drop or two

Have you looked for Apprentice records for any of them ? May give some clues.

[RogerP]

When he took over coopering in Kettering from a Robert Howcutt, Nathaniel Smith was advertising in the Northampton Mercury, Feb/Mar 1808 and 24 Dec 1808, for an apprentice cooper, and a journeyman cooper, but I haven't been able to find them.  Nor any of his sons being apprentices 1820-1840. They were coopers and whitesmiths.