At 21:38 25/08/2006, j halsey wrote: >Not everyone, even in those supposedly religous days arranged for >their children to be baptised, and no doubt even those that did could have >found the journey to church in a large rural parish a matter for some >consideration and, in bad weather, of delay And consider harvest and planting, nobody is going to jeopardise their future well being for a baptism. Consider the demands of the farming year, the impassibility of roads in some areas in bad weather, an intervening pregnancy and it is easy to see baptisms being pushed back for several years. The final impetus perhaps being a family or extended family baptism where maybe four or five members of the same family get baptised en lump. My record so far is nine members of the same family baptised on the same day. John