[Merry]

I have one baptism on my tree where both parents were dead. There is no mention of this in the register and I have no idea who brought up the child or took them to be baptised.

I would have thought there might be any baptisms where the father did not attend because of long working hours.

I would think it's pot luck whether the vicar could care less (or otherwise) about the information he took from the 'parents'. Look at those baptisms of dozens or even hundreds of babies on one day in some parishes - I would think in some cases it might be 'anything goes'!