Confused by denomination

[pharmaT]

The minister must have been quite charismatic (or stubborn!) as he remained in post for over 40 years!   

I think ministers then quite often did. I have transcribed parish records from rural Lancashire and witnessed the vicar baptising for over 50 years, with his script slowly deteriorating until he gave up and died at 83.  Some of them were essentially incumbents for life, and sometimes handed on to a close relative.  May have been in the gift of the local landowner.

I was reading something about that relatively recently.  Something about having the right to appoint the local incumbent. Some of my daughter's relatives benefitted from it.  I have it somewhere in my pile of stuff will need to look it out, it explained it properly the thing I read.

[Melbell]

I have several instances of this diversity in various of my family lines, and I don't find it particularly strange or requiring an explanation, unless the family mixes RC with Anglican/Non-Conformist baptisms. I think that would need more digging to find the reasons.

Melbell

[collin]

My parents were married at our local parish church but when I was born the vicar said they liked their parents to be regular attenders so mam said, no problem we will go elsewhere.
So I was done at the Primitive Methodist Chapel and when I looked at the register, most of my classmates were there, all because of an awkward vicar!

[PaulStaffs]

Have you checked to see if one church was closed and "under repair" for example...

Good thought but no - it was rebuilt in the late 1700s and again in the 1870s but as far as I know was doing 'business as usual' in the 1830s!

[Old Bristolian]

Baptism is the rite of being accepted into the Christian church - not any particular denomination of it. With the exception of the Quakers who don't baptise, and the Baptists who practice adult baptism, it wouldn't matter where the baptism took place ( and ignoring Catholics who might reject non-RC baptisms in theory). It could just be that the family weren't particularly religious themselves, so didn't care where the baptism took place.

[Norfolkman47]

Not precisely the same situation but another reversal of denomination....

A couple of my Norfolk great-grandparents were baptised into the Methodist church as infantsin the 1860s. Later (she at age 14, he a few years after at 21) got themselves formally received into the local C of E Church, where they were later married. But when they had children together, they gave both (a girl and a boy) a Methodist baptism and themselves continued to worship as Methodists for the rest of their lives.

What their particular reasons for this were I know not. As a general observation though, the impression I received from older members of my family was that some C. of E. adherents would get uncomfortable if the local incumbent got too "high church" in matters of ritual and might decamp to the local Methodist assembly rather than being dragged closer to Rome.

John.

[Maiden Stone]

One of the parents may have had Independent leanings and the other didn't.
Another suggestion  - schools or Sunday Schools. Some modern parents join a church if the church school has a good reputation.

[Maiden Stone]

Not precisely the same situation but another reversal of denomination....

A couple of my Norfolk great-grandparents were baptised into the Methodist church as infantsin the 1860s. Later (she at age 14, he a few years after at 21) got themselves formally received into the local C of E Church, where they were later married. But when they had children together, they gave both (a girl and a boy) a Methodist baptism and themselves continued to worship as Methodists for the rest of their lives.

What their particular reasons for this were I know not. As a general observation though, the impression I received from older members of my family was that some C. of E. adherents would get uncomfortable if the local incumbent got too "high church" in matters of ritual and might decamp to the local Methodist assembly rather than being dragged closer to Rome.

John.

Some of those 'high church' clergy in Victorian England themselves decamped to the Catholic Church. John Henry Newman for instance, who became Cardinal Newman.
Some Non-conformists had fallings-out too.

[Viktoria]

Also there was a strong feeling that  C of E Baptisms were “ stronger”,also marriages.
The Methodist and Baptist movements were relatively new and the C of E underwent radical changes, so an unsettled time.
But I think the theory that the parents had no strong leanings is likely.
The babies were “ done” where convenient and  the minister who expected the family to attend Church was not being awkward,he was doing his job and to have your child taken into the Family of the Church when you are not members does seem more like superstition than religion.
The stupid belief that unbaptised babies were not allowed into heaven was very strong and given the infant mortality rate of those times parents played safe.
There was obviously a lot of superstition and belief all mixed up ,still is!

There are Great big Christening do’s,hundreds in our church.
Promises made but never kept.Sniggering at the words etc so why bother?
Church schools are often very good, that is why,children must have been baptised to go to such schools nowadays.

But at least they had their babies baptised so  they had done their best even if not regular attenders .
How parents coped with the many babies lost I can’t imagine.
My Grandmother lost three ,all just weeks and months old.
Viktoria.