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  • Private Baptism

    I'm currently transcribing for lan-opc and often see P.B. added to other detail.
    There is the occasional single woman having her child PB but just wondered if any ones knows why a Private Baptism was performed?

  • #2
    Usually when the family was a bit better off!

    Perhaps if the mother was poorly & the baby not expected to live, the vicar might make a special trip as a favour.

    I've seen one recently, where the gist of the entry was, privately baptised in [the vicar's] house when he was lame.
    Vicky

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    • #3
      Thanks for your response Vicky. You may well be right but its not reflected in the cross section of parents occupations.

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      • #4
        Have a look at this document Alan which explains private baptisms.



        My understanding is that the most common reason for a private baptism was if the child wasn't expected to live long enough to be brought to church for a public baptism. If he or she did survive, then they had to be brought to church and presented to the congregation. I have only recently seen the actual baptism record for my great grandfather and was very surprised to see that he had been privately baptised. I say surprised because he lived until he was 80!

        Ann
        ".... thy memory shall be blest by the children of the children of thy child".
        Alfred, Lord Tennyson





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        • #5
          Thank you Ann...................I'm on my way.

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          • #6
            I have a few private baptisms in my family tree and they are nearly always (as far as I can tell) on the day of birth or shortly after which leads me to think it was because the baby wasn't expected to survive.
            ~ with love from Little Nell~
            Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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            • #7
              That seems to be the answer 'Little Nell'.............thanks for your response.

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              • #8
                My grandmother had a PB and it was because she wasn't expected to live, amazingly she lived to be 82!

                Anne

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                • #9
                  Could depend on the area too. Many of my ancestors families, in rural Northumberland, had PB. I noticed, looking through the parish registers, that a lot of these PB were those living on farms, some way out of the village. Perhaps a coincidence, but these were the wealthier families. I don't believe all the babies could have been sickly. The local doctor had remarked, in a letter to the Times, on the very low infant mortality in this area.

                  Did a PB have to be done by the vicar, or would this include those done as an emergency (by the midwife or other suitable person). Almost all PB are also listed, some time later, as being "Received into the Church"
                  Vicky

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                  • #10
                    Ann, thank you for that link, its a very interesting document. I had also seen references in the NBL parish records of "dissenters children" & wondered whether this meant they had converted.
                    Vicky

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