Thank you for that information John. I was wondering if that was what it meant. Do you think that this note may also indicate that this birth was the first child of the couple? Kind regards Heather Minol ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Francis" <[email protected]> To: "Heather Minol" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2014 3:47 AM Subject: Re: [NFK] New lister with a question re note on baptism entry > Contrary to other replies, this was a common form of words in baptism > entries prior to the 1812 act. One of several examples in my own tree > reads: > > "Mary Ann daughter of Thomas Hall and Mary his wife (late Mary Savage > spinster) was publickly baptized August 13th 1810" > > This simply indicates the maiden name of the mother, and the fact that she > had not been married prior to her marriage to Thomas Hall. Unfortunately, > this useful information occurs more rarely after 1812, when pre-printed > registers came into use, having no clear space for such comments. > > Regards, > > John Francis > > > At 18:14 18/07/2014, you wrote: >>Hello, >> >>I have just joined the list and am researching a number of families in >>Norfolk, including ELMER, WALKER and NEWSTEAD. >> >>I have just come across a baptism entry in 1809 containing the note: >>"mother late spinster" and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what that >>means please? I've come up with a couple of theories, but would like to >>hear from someone who has better knowledge of the terminology than I do. >> >>Kind regards >> >>Heather Minol >>Canberra >>Australia >> >>------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>[email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >>quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >