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In Search of Stanley

Discussion in 'Comments on the latest newsletter' started by macsal, Oct 15, 2019.

  1. Now that wily old Peter has put the baptism record in the newsletter I can see what he's talking about.

    Look at the handwriting, the B for Bastard is the same as the B for Bolton in the abode for the two previous entries.

    I'm inclined to think it was inserted at the time the entry was made, once the curate realised the situation.
     
  2. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Bear in mind that baptism registers aren't written up at the time of the baptism.
     
  3. I don't think that mattered in the context of my thread.

    for what it's worth I've been doing some research into baptisms, or should i say confirming what i had found out many years ago:
    According to The Book of Common Prayer (1559), it was recommended that infants should be baptized on the next Sunday or holy day following their birth, to allow the greatest number of people to witness the sacrament. (The spelling of baptised is not mine, I have copied exactly what i saw).

    When looking through a baptism register, you’ll sometimes see a note saying that the child was privately baptised. This means the child wasn’t baptised at Sunday service, usually because it was thought too weak to survive until then.

    My own observation:
    The date that the baptism occurred i.e. 19 Feb 1841 was a Friday. It was not a holiday.
    Does the mystery deepen??
     
  4. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    I'd already spotted that 19th February 1841 was a Friday, but when I looked through the register for Denbigh I found other public baptisms which weren't on a Sunday, eg Wednesday 23/12/1840 at the top of the same page, Wednesday 10/3/1841 and Wednesday 7/4/1841 on the next page.

    The practice of baptising children on the next Sunday or holy day after their birth died out long before the 19th century - see the article in my next newsletter. But since there was 6 day working, Sunday would usually be the only day of the week when the father of a child could be present.
     
  5. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Something I hadn't considered before is that Henry Morton Stanley didn't have children - which could possibly indicate that he was the product of incest (since the children of close relatives are more likely to be infertile). If so, all the more reason to muddy the waters.
     
    • Creative Creative x 1
  6. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    I've been in touch with Denbighshire Archives, who kindly sent me colour scans of the parish register page and the relevant Bishop's Transcript. I can't post them here, but suffice it to say that seeing the register in colour doesn't provide any further information.

    The Bishop's Transcript contains the same information, which confirms that any changes made to the register were done in 1841. It also confirms the surname of the father as Rowland, not Rowlands.
     
  7. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    I ordered the PDF so that we could completely exclude this entry form consideration: the parents were John Parry and Susannah Amos.
     
  8. Helen7

    Helen7 LostCousins Superstar

    And curiosity got the better of me regarding the John Roberts Parry birth registered in late 1841, so despite what I said earlier, I ordered the PDF which came today. We can exclude that one too, as the birth was in Abergele in October 1841, parents John Parry (stonemason) and Sarah Roberts.
     

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