Conditional Baptism in the Church of England

[Anstey Nomad]

This is a new one on me, and I have whiled away a few minutes finding out about it.

I can understand the idea that someone may not be sure whether they have been baptised, necessitating at some point, some sort of re-baptism. People baptised as infants will not remember and if the parents are no longer around and the certificate has been lost, this may be a way to resolve the situation.

What I do not understand is why my uncle was conditionally baptised at the age of 14 in the parish where he had lived all his life, with both parents present. Surely my grandparents could not have forgotten whether their older child had been baptised?

Even stranger, there was no 'two for one' deal. My father was baptised in the same church at the age of 7, a week after his brother.

I so wish he was here to ask. He was heavily involved with this church as a boy and there's a good chance he would have remembered what was happening at the time.

Are there any better theologians than me out there who might have some ideas?

Thanks

[Olde Crone]

I wonder if the confusion arose because the child was possibly privately baptised at birth (by midwife, doctor, etc) because he was not likely to survive? These private baptisms were sometimes not recorded in the heat of the moment, with everyone thinking someone else would report it - or not thinking it important anyway.

I remember reading ages ago about a baby that was spirited away to be baptised by the grandmother, who was RC. When the baby was to be baptised C of E, she spoke up and there was a terrible fuss..I cannot remember the outcome.

OC

[Anstey Nomad]

Possible, but not probable I think. There was never any suggestion that my uncle had been unlikely to survive.

I am aware of a private baptism elsewhere in the family. I will check what happened there.

[kiterunner]

Maybe although the parents knew he had been baptised, the baptism record couldn't be found in the PR's? A couple of people in my family tree were baptised a second time because their baptisms had accidentally been written on the burials page so couldn't be found.

[Anstey Nomad]

Interesting thought @Kiterunner.

I've checked what happened to the chap who was baptised at home immediately after birth. He was subsequently baptised in his mother's home parish without any annotation to suggest that this baptism was conditional.

[Olde Crone]

This is no help - but the wording of the subsequent "baptism" is slightly different and is a receiving into the church, not a dedication to god. Of course, we don't know how accurately things were reported at the time and by whom, so I suspect without proof that a certain number of people were baptised twice in error, or not at all, also in error.

OC

[JBee]

Wondering if they couldn't find his baptism record and he was due to be confirmed so did a conditional one just in case.

[Anstey Nomad]

Good call. 14 is about the right age, but I still think one of my grandparents would have remembered whether he'd been baptised before!

[Phoenix]

We're both baptisms in the same book?

Might your uncle need proof of baptism for a first employer?

[Anstey Nomad]

Uncle Wilf was conditionally baptised on 30 November and my Dad on 7 December, so they were on the same page of the register.

Uncle Wilf left school at 14 and went to work on the railway (LNER).