Late baptisms

[greyingrey]

I know they happened & I know it was often done so that 2 or more children could be baptised together, but is there any particular reason why parents should have waited until the children were 7/8 years old ? (1810/20). I've got a couple with 2 sons, both of whom seem to have been born before their parents were married (so I'm assuming the father was the father as cited on the later baptisms). One son was baptised 2 years after the marriage, when he would have been 7/8 & the other son was baptised 4 years after the marriage, when he also was 7 or 8. The father then died, so I can't tell if the pattern would have continued. As the 2 sons were baptised separately, although they were both alive at the time of the oldest son's baptism, it can't have been to save money & the baptisms were at the same church, so it doesn't look as if the family had moved.

Obviously, there could have been any kind of reasons, but I was wondering if there was anything in particular......maybe the boys could have been sent out to "work" by helping in a household/farm etc at that age & the family concerned may have insisted that they had been baptised beforehand ?

[Guest]

I have a baptism at 16 years of age and 18 , when I asked on here somebody said it may be they were going to work as a domestic and the household wouldn't take them if they hadn't been Baptised??????

[Olde Crone Holden]

To get any kind of poor relief in a parish, you had to have been baptised there, so that might have prompted a baptism.

On the other hand, it may just have been that the vicar caught up with them and it was easier to have the children baptised than to argue!

Also, Val's reason above is a good one. Most Masters would not take an apprentice unless they had been baptised.

OC

[JudithM]

Could also be that there was a church run school which would only take pupils who had been baptised

[greyingrey]

Thanks for your ideas.....I did wonder if there had been a school/some kind of master offering, well, not an apprenticeship at that age, but maybe some kind of "fetch & carry" work with a possible apprenticeship in the future.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Paupers were apprenticed from age 7, the others from 10, although they were often taken on younger than that.

OC

[Anne in Carlisle]

I have just been dealing with a family group in a small village in Buckinghamshire. The "children" were all baptised on the same day aged between 11 and 30. One of the girls was even married but they are all described as children of Thomas xxxxx of .....
I have no idea what might have brought this about but it certainly groups them nicely!

Anne

[Olde Crone Holden]

Religious revival meetings sometimes prompted mass baptisms too. Think Billy Graham, lol.

OC