Hello Graeme   Yes, I agree with Terry. It's one of the numerous euphemisms denoting an illegitimate child - a 'child of the people' with no legal father. However, I would imagine that his father may well have been a man named John Tender given that middle names (as we understand them) were virtually non-existent at that time. Have you looked into the parish chest records for the parish? There may be some sort of bastardy certificate.   Best wishes   James   _________________________ James L. Phillips-Evans, LLB Greencourts Research ________________________________ From: Graeme M Bailey <graeme@baileynet.com.au> To: devon@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, 28 November 2013, 10:02 Subject: [DEV] Meaning of "[et populi]" in baptism record? Greetings Can anyone help with the meaning of an entry in a baptism: John Tender ye son of Gartrud Bailey [et Populi] was baptized on ye 18th August 1718 1. Does this mean that a fellow whose surname was Tender had a child by Gartrud Bailey, but Mr Tender has not married her and she is having the boy baptized as John Tender, the son of Gartrud Bailey... or 2. The boy is being baptized by his mother, Gartrud Bailey and that his name is John Tender Bailey Can anyone help with the expression 'et Populi' in this context? Best regards Graeme ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Thanks James and Terry for assistance :-) Does anyone have any other examples of this sort of entry? ie mother baptising baby with father's surname? I have heard of children being given the family name by common usage but I haven't heard of of the mother baptizing the baby with the father's name when he's 'flown the coop' or 'shot through' or whatever the expression was at that time... Has anyone got another example of the use of this 'et populi' in another baptism that I could look at? Searching Findmypast for surname 'Tender' found only one record from Devon for the years 1538 - 2005 and only 19 records for that surname total for the whole of UK so it seems to be a very uncommon name? Forename(s):John Surname:Tender Year:1708 Month:May Day:7 Father's Forename:William Mother's Forename:Jane Mother's Surname: Birth Day: Birth Month: Birth Year: Dedication:Thrushelton Place:Plymouth County:Devon Page:Archive Ref:686/1 Notes: Record source: Baptism Register - Transcripts Data provider:Plymouth & West Devon Record Office Collection On Thu, 2013-11-28 at 13:36 +0000, James Phillips-Evans wrote: > Hello Graeme > > Yes, I agree with Terry. It's one of the numerous euphemisms denoting an illegitimate child - a 'child of the people' with no legal father. However, I would imagine that his father may well have been a man named John Tender given that middle names (as we understand them) were virtually non-existent at that time. Have you looked into the parish chest records for the parish? There may be some sort of bastardy certificate. > > Best wishes > > James > > _________________________ > James L. Phillips-Evans, LLB > Greencourts Research > <...>