My dictionary gives several definitions and i think that what "infant" means depends on the circumstances.
My dictionary says "Infant ...(legal) a child under the age of 18" infant...(of mortality) under one year."
"Infanticide" is the murder of a child whilst the mother is still in the perinatal condition, sio the infant would be definitely under one year of age.
I think that taken in the context of a church burial register, then "infant" must mean a child under a year old (or thereabouts) because my experience has been to see children described either as infants or children.
The word infant comes from the Latin word for speech, so in-fant means a child too young to speak.
I think the best thing to do is to look at other burials in the register around that time and see if the Vicar/Clerk has written "child" for any other one, or whether everyone is an infant until they are an adult, if you see what I mean.
The census guidelines - infant is less than 12 months.....
Biologically, a child (plural: children) is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child.[1] The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority.
these are all the modern meanings for the word infant. in the 18th century, in my experience the oldest i have encountered was an 'infant' of 6 years old. in that case though, the parents were mentioned in the entry as well. so i did know for sure that this child was 6. i think val they are right when they say look at the other entries referring to children, and see if you can come with their ages from the christening records.
Do not be confused by modern meanings of the word.
Infancy has slowly changed from the early meaning of simply not having reached the age of majority (what we would term a minor now) to being less that one year old.
Many parish registers show the age of those who died under one year (or in some cases two years) old in days, weeks, months or a combination of these. In such registers the use of the word infant is often kept for those between one and 7 or 15.
Old schools often had an infant school for those under 12; though in some cases the youngest classes were referred to as babies.
However nothing is written in stone (even then it may not be correct (tombstone giving a date as 31 February))
As has been stated the meaning a particular person puts on a particular word is often open to interpretation and even then he/she may used a different meaning at will.
Cheers
Guy
Do not be confused by modern meanings of the word.
Infancy has slowly changed from the early meaning of simply not having reached the age of majority (what we would term a minor now) to being less that one year old.
Many parish registers show the age of those who died under one year (or in some cases two years) old in days, weeks, months or a combination of these. In such registers the use of the word infant is often kept for those between one and 7 or 15.
Old schools often had an infant school for those under 12; though in some cases the youngest classes were referred to as babies.
My first school was an 'Infant' school .... it consisted of just three classrooms, catering for ages 5,6 and 7 years ( and yes, I am old enough to go to a school that had a pot belly stove in the middle of the classroom). In the first year, we all used to sit around this stove while the teacher read stories.. it was a great opportunity to take a nap!.
I think what was written in the parish register for burials varies with the person who is doing it! Personally I've not found an "infant" above 3 years old, the later ones being described as "child". Check through the register and find what was the norm for that particular book at that particular time.
I have the burial of a child in 1790 where it mentions the word "infant". I'm pretty sure he's mine as it's a very unusual name and no others of that name appear in the registers, but he would have been about 12-13. Before reading Guy's posting I did wonder if I had it correct. I'll have to go back and check the other death entries for children to be sure.
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