Hello Geoff Is it possible my John Robson's baptism is in a Chapely at Hetton? Regards Allan Robson Allan: Yes, St Nicholas' Church began life, as many 19th-century churches did, as the church building serving a Parochial Chapelry. After a few years in which to become well-established, a Parochial Chapelry usually became a parish of its own, no longer dependent on the "mother parish", which in this case was that of Houghton le Spring. Parochial Chapelries usually had their own baptism registers and, if they had an attached churchyard, which some town churches might not have had, then there would have been a burial register as well. Following Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, which came into force on 1 January 1754, and up to 1837, marriages in England and Wales had to be in a C of E Parish Church, but this seems to have been interpreted as including Parochial Chapelries, only ruling out Non-Parochial Chapels such as Private Chapels, Chapels in Institutions etc. Geoff Nicholson