Late Baptisms - St Thomas, Norbury

[Ray T]

My impression has always been that, during the 19C, children were generally baptised at an early age.

The vicar of St Thomas, Norbury (Hazel Grove) has conveniently added the age of those baptised and it is noteworthy that the early baptism convention was not being followed in the first half of 1977. There are a few youngsters but most are teenagers and some are into their later years - 40s, 50s and one even 61.

Any ideas? This page is typical - https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=gbprs%2fchs%2f4202567%2f00452

[Maiden Stone]

My impression has always been that, during the 19C, children were generally baptised at an early age.

The vicar of St Thomas, Norbury (Hazel Grove) has conveniently added the age of those baptised and it is noteworthy that the early baptism convention was not being followed in the first half of 1977.

1977? Should that be 1877?
I don't have a sub to FindMyPast.
Were infant baptisms still happening?
Baptisms of teenagers may have been prior to confirmation.

[Ray T]

Yes should be 1877. There were a few infants but they seem to be in the minority. I haven’t done a full assessment though.

[Maiden Stone]

Have you compared 1877 with other years? If baptism pattern was different that year perhaps there was an evangelical mission or a new, enthusiastic cleric, or a Sunday School set up for adults.

[Ray T]

Thanks, I need to find time to re-visit the register and do an assessment. I didn’t go through the whole register but I think the Ds-o-B were only written in for a six month (or so) period.

[Ray T]

There's no real logic to it. The main concentration is between 27 May 1877 and 22 July 1877. Some don't have ages, which I'm assuming are infants, but the majority do. There are a few scattered ages outside this period but they're in the minority.

The majority are in their teens but some are younger and there are others in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and two aged 61.

The vicar was a "J Gordon" and he baptised both before and after this period.

[Comberton]

[Ray T]

Question answered! Thanks.

I’ll freely admit to knowing little about religious matters but it seems that people were in a hurry to get baptised so they could be confirmed by the bishop - whatever that involved.

R

[Maiden Stone]

"Among the many candidates were many men and women advanced in years".
They may have included people who weren't confirmed when adolescents because they hadn't been regular attenders at church at the time, or hadn't attended a C. of E. schools, or moved parishes in adolescence and missed confirmation visits by bishops.
The pre-confirmation baptisms may have been conditional baptisms if candidates didn't know if they were baptised as infants or couldn't provide proof. Were they born locally or had they moved to Hazel Grove? The vicar could have searched the baptism register if they were born in the parish, but if they were born elsewhere, he may have been faced with the prospect of writing dozens of letters to other parishes where people said they were born, to try to obtain proof of baptism. Considering the time it would take + cost of stamps, notepaper and ink, he may have decided that administering conditional baptism to them all was the best course of action. According to GENUKI, baptism registers for the church date from 1829, so if the oldest confirmation candidates were baptised as babies, their baptisms wouldn't have been in St. Thomas register. Boundaries of the parish changed c.1860 and changed again 1878 (source GENUKI).

A woman on a distant branch of my family tree was baptised "sub conditione" aged 34 although she's been baptised when she was a baby, like all her siblings. She and her 9 year old son were baptised on the same day at a Catholic church. Her infant baptism was at another R.C. church in the same town. Uncertainty about whether she was already baptised was probably caused by her stating the wrong year of birth and  incorrect spelling of her surname by priests. Her surname has only 4 letters but there there are 3 variants of it in registers. Her infant baptism was written with a different variant to all her siblings. Her mother was R.C. but apparently her father wasn't. Her father was baptised "sub conditione" at a Catholic church , a month before his 78th birthday. His definitely comes under "late baptisms".