Why this odd 1807 Devonport Wesleyan Bapt for Mary Nodder?

[TadlowNewell]

In Ancestry, at

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/160990:2972?tid=178469862&pid=302318688977&queryId=9fbe23a5032fce6b670b5f305ded5e89&_phsrc=ZCy4&_phstart=successSource

you can (if you have a subscription) see a page of the Morice Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel  Baptism records. (I have not attached the page image in case of a copyright issue)

I have three closely-related questions:

1. One entry on the page - for Mary Nodder - is different from the rest in having no details apart from her parents names. Instead there is a blank space, almost as if something has been deleted or deliberately omitted. Curious!! Any ideas why? Of course, Mary is the person I am interested in. Sod's Law! There is no issue of illegitimacy etc involved as this is the sixth (of seven) children born to Joseph Elias and Arminell, and all seven were baptised in this Chapel and the other six provide dates both of baptism and of birth. Mary also did not die in infancy - she lived for 54 years until 1861 - so it probably wasn't any sort of 'emergency' baptism.

2. The entries on the page are only very roughly in order of baptism date. I cannot think of any way this could happen in a register. Any ideas?

3. Finally, does anyone know of any other source which would allow me to pinpoint Mary Nodder's precise birth date? I have searched quite hard with no joy, but I don't have the skills or knowledge of many of you Rootschatter experts.

Two thoughts:

It could be that the document scanned by Ancestry is actually a transcript, not the 'original' baptism register. Certainly the handwriting is all the same... The description of the source in Ancestry does not, though, say it was a transcript. Instead it states it comes from "Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857".

I do know that the Chapel in Morice St was not actually built until 1807 (the year of Mary's baptism). Before then the congregation met in the “‘Higher Room’ in Princes Street where workers from the parent Ker Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel began services.” (Source: https://www.olddevonport.uk/Morice%20Street%20Wesleyan%20Methodist%20Chapel.htm). Hence could it possibly be that baptisms were undertaken in two locations around this time, but there was only one shared register...? I'm clutching at straws!

Thanks in advance.

[goldie61]

In Ancestry, at

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/160990:2972?tid=178469862&pid=302318688977&queryId=9fbe23a5032fce6b670b5f305ded5e89&_phsrc=ZCy4&_phstart=successSource

you can (if you have a subscription) see a page of the Morice Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel  Baptism records. (I have not attached the page image in case of a copyright issue)

You are allowed to post clips from pages of registers.
You could 'clip' a section showing the baptism you are interested in, plus a couple either side for comparison.
 
2. The entries on the page are only very roughly in order of baptism date. I cannot think of any way this could happen in a register. Any ideas?

Registers were often compiled at a later date than the actual event.
The vicar or minister, or his clerk, might make a note of events, say on slips of paper, or in a notebook, then later on write them all down in the actual register when he had time.
This could be one of the reasons why some baptism are sometimes missing in registers.

[Stanwix England]

It seems there might have been a change over in staff, for want of a better term.

The entries above Mary's seem to have been signed by John Bondale, or something like that.

The ones after Mary's seem to have been signed by John Buckley.

I wonder if there was an interim person, on the day Mary was baptised and they didn't fill it in properly or something?

EDIT: It seems like the person filling it in is not necessarily the person mentioned. Over the pages around Mary's entry, the name John Buckley seems to be written in two, if not three, different hands.

EDIT: Something else that has just occurred to me, is it possible that Mary was baptised as a slightly elder child, if her parents became Methodists in her childhood? Maybe that is why no birthdate is written?

[TadlowNewell]

Thanks for suggestions. The fact that the chapel in Morice St was opened in 1807, the year Mary was baptised probably suggests the chapel elders etc had a lot on their plate, and precisely-kept registers probably were not priority#1 for a while. If I make any progress I'll post here again.