Hello, I've found a puzzling case of a late c18 Whitechapel family who did not baptise their first two children. I have quite a lot of background information about them and can find no obvious explanation. I wonder if anyone has further ideas? Phineas Johnson and Mary Taylor married 1772 and lived on White Lyon Street in Whitechapel (the South end of today's Leman Street). The baptisms of nine of their children are registered at St Mary Whitechapel between 1777 and 1792. However, there are (at least) two more: (1) Henry George Johnson, apprenticed a Painter Stainer and baptised in his 40s at St Mary Lambeth (giving his date of birth 1773) (2) James Taylor Johnson, apprenticed a Stationer in 1790. Presumably born 1776 or earlier. Two explanations occurred to me, but neither seems probable: I wondered if Phineas might be a nonconformist -- certainly a popular option in Whitechapel at this time. But I've found no evidence for this. He was baptised himself, as were all his brothers and sisters, at St Mary Whitechapel and he married at St John Wapping. Also, Phineas appears to have been financially ok for most of his life, if not particularly wealthy. He was apprenticed a Painter Stainer, became free of the City and worked as an oilman or colourman. He paid taxes on the property in White Lyon St until his death in 1804; he also inherited property in Hendon which he sold in the 1780s. None of the parish records identify him as poor. thanks, Michael -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.4/399 - Release Date: 25/07/2006

Hello Michael, Baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Henry George you say was baptised when in his forties, so the parents were plainly not concerned to ensure that all the children were baptised when young. If that could happen to one it could, I would have thought, have happened to others. The only other possibility, if you exclude a nonconformist baptism, is that the child was baptised beyond the parish(es) you have searched. It is by no means unknown for children to be baptised in the parishes of their grandparents or their god-parents. Our two were baptised in parishes 100 miles from where we lived ! I am not suggesting that yours travelled that distance -there are a lot of parishes in the highly-populated area of south-east Middlesex and the eastern part of the City of London, - well over a dozen, all within easy walking distance of each other. Have you checked them all? Jim Halsey