Hi Everyone
I'm just curious if anyone else knows or has seen baptismal certs for people who were christened as Adults. I have from the BDA Index BYRNE, WILLIAM b before 1810 B#32021093801.
1827 William Byrne, Aged [Adult] Baptised 26 June 1827 at Appin Registered at St. Mary's Biog Item 320210938.
On the NSW BDM it has two entries for a William BYRNE b 1827. I don't know if this is my particular William BYRNE but curious as to why and adult would be baptised. Many thanks regards Dianna
There is no reason to stop an adult seeking to be baptised. Some denominations in fact, do not baptise children - Baptists is an example.
It is very likely the two entries listed at NSW BDM are for the one event. Back in 1810, the then governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie, issued a general order requiring the clergy to provide information on the baptisms and burials that they performed. He did not provide funding for the clergy to undertake those responsibilities, so the general orders were not treated as significant as the Ecclesiastical laws for each denomination. So a record of a baptism in Appin would likely be recorded in a church register in Appin AND that clergyman would likely TRANSMIT a record of that baptism (and all the other baptisms, burials, marriages he conducted within that Quarter) to his Diocese head in Sydney (various titles depending on denomination). There are instances of ceremonies conducted by clergy of one denomination, and the transmitted entry carried by clergy of another denomination, so that the event is then lodged with the NSW Chaplain at St Philips, Sydney (C of E).
Sometimes there can be FIVE transmitted entries for the one event, othertimes - none, all have been lost over time.
https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/births-deaths-and-marriages-registers-1787-1856One of my ancestors was born in the Hawkesbury District in 1800s, father a soldier. That baby's baptism is listed at NSW BDM 5 times. The next baby, (as per Musters, family private papers including correspondence sent to Scotland within months of the birth, and Pay Lists) - NOT EVEN ONE index entry at NSW BDM.
1820s, one of my ancestors was baptised as a child in the Wesleyan rites, at Parramatta. That ancestor's baptism is also recorded as a "TRANSMITTAL" at St Philips, Sydney. So, a "Methodist" baptism in a C of E register. A careful inspection of St Johns C of E Parramatta, may show transmitted records in the years prior to about 1830ish.
One of my husbands ancestors was not baptised as a child (neither were any of that child's siblings), but as an adult they went through a full Adult Baptism as part of their religious practices with the Baptist Union of NSW.
JM
ADD - the reason Lachlan Macquarie needed to know how many baptisms, burials had occurred in the colony in any quarter - FUNDING... Whitehall sent funding based on per capita ... without that funding it is very likely that much of the 1810-1820 built environment in Sydney, or the expedition over the Blue Mountains in 1813, or Port Macquarie, or Newcastle, would not have happened.
