Multiple baptisms

[ElizabethHerts]

Glen, I went to HALS on the Thursday of half-term and parked with ease. I never seem to have any problems parking there, and it is free. I usually get there early, but this time I didn't arrive until 11 a.m. but there were still a few spaces.

[Oakum Picker]

Thanks for the reply Elizabeth. I used to go every couple of weeks when a charge was made for reserving the machines & had no problems. Then as my visits became less frequent, I found more problems until the last time a couple of years ago when I couldn't find a space in the County Hall carparks which has rather put me off visiting. I'll have to give it another go as there are many things I still need to look for or get copies of.

[ElizabethHerts]

Glen, do you live fairly close? I'm just north of St Albans.

[Oakum Picker]

Elizabeth,

I live just south of Aylesbury. The journey during rush hour is anything between an hour & an hour & a half. At other times about 45 mins. I always tried to get to HALS by opening & left at closing which made the effort worthwhile. The particular time I'm talking about, I'd had a bad journey & didn't arrive until 9.30 and there was not a car parking space anywhere. I ended up driving out to Watton & Walkern where some of my ancestors were from & returned about 11.45 - still nothing so I went home.

[ElizabethHerts]

Glenn, you must have been very unlucky not to have found any spaces. It's quite a trek for you and then not to have been able to park must have been most frustrating. I wonder if there was something on at County Hall. They have just finished some redecorating when I went.

We were over your way yesterday. We went to West Wycombe Park in the afternoon and had a drive around as well. We came home via Wendover. I'm very fond of the countryside west of Aylesbury and my Jeffcoat ancestors came from Upper Winchendon. The church there has the most beautiful view.

[Oakum Picker]

Sorry Elizabeth,

Had to dash down to Brighton to sort out my youngest. Yes, I like the Bucks countryside & have hiked over most of it. I'm a couple of miles from Wendover.

I think that when I decide to go, I'll ring up to make sure nothing is going on. Thanks for your interest.

[kiterunner]

Coincidentally, I came across this in the Elkesley parish register today:

Memorandum the Act for three pence from every Baptism Burial and Marriage took place Octr 1st 1783.

There is also a page from 1728 about the tithes etc payable to the Curate, which states his dues for burials, weddings and churchings. Unfortunately it's quite difficult to make out whether they are pence or shillings but I think it says 6d for a burial, 2s for a wedding and 7d for a churching. So it appears that in that parish at least, they didn't have to pay for baptisms until the tax was introduced in 1783, but they would usually pay for a churching after a birth. (Unless the mother died soon after the birth in which case they would be paying for a burial.)

[Gert in Oz]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

Coincidentally, I came across this in the Elkesley parish register today:

Memorandum the Act for three pence from every Baptism Burial and Marriage took place Octr 1st 1783.

I know this was in All Saints church Leicester too, because a note was left on a baptism that the father owed three pence from a previous baptism.

Turned out it wasn`t mine in the end.

[kiterunner]

Oh yes, the Act was nationwide, Sylvia.

[Phoenix]

The tax under the Stamp Act was payable to the state, so the vicar would note all the paupers, to justify the amount he paid over.

At other times, where he charged parishioners, the amounts presumably could be waived at his discretion, and this would vary between parishes and over time.

I'm sure I've heard of cut price discounts for job lots, but that cannot have been carved in stone as the church's view surely was that each child should be baptised as soon as possible. In one register (1720s) the vicar is justifying all the late baptisms - babies over one month old - explaining how he has hectored the mothers into having the children baptised.