Hello listers A question which I keep thinking about (as I haven't found a baptism for them) is whether it was permissible for somebody who was not baptised in the church of England to then get married in a CofE establishment? Would they need to prove their "status" of being baptised? I'm talking 19th century and before, particularly 18th century practices. Did the church have any rules governing this? I'm not discounting of course that the curate/rector simply omitted the baptism entry when they came to add the backlog of baptisms to the register. I just can't find certain people baptised and it is really bugging me. If they were baptised in a non conformist church, could they have married in a CofE church. i.e. Perhaps I have been looking in the wrong place in other words. From what I know I doubt the individuals concerned would have been Catholic but I wouldn't rule them out as being Anabaptist, Methodist etc if a charismatic preacher came to town. Regards David

Hi David, I transcribed a couple of parishes in Northampton, and noted a few entries where the vicar had written a note in the marriage entry along the lines of "heathen" when someone married someone of another religion. Rather harsh - later vicars would write something like "not baptised in our Church" which I take to mean Church of England and not the parish church. One of the books had a list inside the back cover of baptisms that had taken place elsewhere, or for those in the church that had been lost, as proof of baptism at time of marriage, but I don't think this was a common practice. There are a number of "adult" baptisms, or "baptised as an adult" in the registers, where people were dipped or redipped just prior to their marriage to satisfy the vicar's requirements. Cheers Trish Nowra NSW > A question which I keep thinking about (as I haven't found a baptism for > them) is whether it was permissible for somebody who was not baptised in > the > church of England to then get married in a CofE establishment? Would they > need to prove their "status" of being baptised? I'm talking 19th century > and before, particularly 18th century practices. Did the church have any > rules governing this? > David

Hi David There was and is no official requirement in the Church of England for a person to be baptised before they can be married. Moreover, before 1837 the majority of non-conformists could not be married in their own denomination and had to be married in the C of E. (Only Quakers and Jews were allowed to conduct their own marriages.) That said, some C of E clergy did (and still do) try to encourage the unbaptised to be baptised before marrying, but could not oblige them to do so. Incidentally, the C of E considers baptism in any Christian denomination to be equally valid, so there would be no distinction between someone baptised as, say, a Methodist, and someone baptised in the C of E. Hope that helps. Pauline On 21/12/2011 19:59, David Cullingford wrote: > Hello listers > > A question which I keep thinking about (as I haven't found a baptism for > them) is whether it was permissible for somebody who was not baptised in the > church of England to then get married in a CofE establishment? Would they > need to prove their "status" of being baptised? I'm talking 19th century > and before, particularly 18th century practices. Did the church have any > rules governing this? > > I'm not discounting of course that the curate/rector simply omitted the > baptism entry when they came to add the backlog of baptisms to the register. > I just can't find certain people baptised and it is really bugging me. > > If they were baptised in a non conformist church, could they have married in > a CofE church. i.e. Perhaps I have been looking in the wrong place in other > words. From what I know I doubt the individuals concerned would have been > Catholic but I wouldn't rule them out as being Anabaptist, Methodist etc if > a charismatic preacher came to town. > > Regards > > David