« Reply #5 on: Friday 08 March 19 20:52 GMT (UK) »
People were pretty superstitious about Baptisms,often the belief persisted that an unbaptised baby would not be admitted to heaven.
It would then stay in the state of Limbo for ever.
As infant deaths were so common it was usual to baptise a baby almost immediately.Babies too sick to attend church would be baptised at home.
Think of Jane Seymore ,her baby was baptised before she died (9 days after his birth .)
So I would say an unbaptised baby would be rare.
However dissenters like Baptists believe that you must be adult and fully aware of what is happening when you are baptised,hence adult baptisms for them.
Viktoria.
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Thanks for the explanation. I have often seen private baptisms listed in the register, the vicar obviously went to the parents house to baptise the baby if they were too sick to go to church. Not sure if all private baptisms were noted in the register.
In June 1765, a Mary Huntley was baptised in Horsham, Sussex, daughter of John and Lucy. A Mary Huntley, infant, was buried in April 1766 in Horsham. So it would appear it is likely the one born in 1765. My Mary Huntley wed her first hubby Thomas Davey in 1782 and she remarried William Dinnage in 1792. Mary died in 1837, age given as 72. Witnesses to her first and 2nd marriage seem to connect to John and Lucy but a Richard Huntley wed Mary Davey in 1764 in Horsham. Mary Huntley, later Davey then Dinnage had a son Richard. An example of how you can be thrown off track.
Seems the Huntley's were connected but how I am not sure.
Researching:
LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain