Sorry you are wrong, they did indeed charge a fee for bapts. parish records do show how much was paid and whether the persons family were excepted by the wording pauper by the side of the records. ( Hence the creation of AT'st's and BT's which were a way of seeing just how much money the church was collecting and to pick up any irregularitys , these records were always as far as I understand sent with an record of the Churches accounts. This practice of charging was at some point stopped. Honor ________________________________ From: richard <richardmyhill43@btinternet.com> To: suffolk@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, 11 December, 2010 18:59:03 snip> I always understood that the church did not charge for baptisms,that all were welcome to the house of god. Richard Myhill <snip

As well as the fees for baptism or marriage, there were also charges for writing the event in the register - at least in some places at some times. These fees went to the rector / vicar / curate depending on local circumstance, so they are not referred to an any church accounts. The late 17th century rector of Melford kept big books of his accounts, which survive, and there are plenty of references to the fees for recording events - and a reference to the fact that while the overseers paid the fees for burials of paupers, they did not always pay the fee for recording the burial in the register, so he, the rector, recorded them out of the kindness of his heart ... it's possible that some 'missing' events are from that sort of circumstance. Lyn B -----Original Message----- From: suffolk-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:suffolk-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of NOREEN KENNEDY Sent: 11 December 2010 19:11 To: suffolk@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SFK-UK] REEVE lookup request Sorry you are wrong, they did indeed charge a fee for bapts. parish records do show how much was paid and whether the persons family were excepted by the wording pauper by the side of the records. ( Hence the creation of AT'st's and BT's which were a way of seeing just how much money the church was collecting and to pick up any irregularitys , these records were always as far as I understand sent with an record of the Churches accounts. This practice of charging was at some point stopped. Honor ________________________________ From: richard <richardmyhill43@btinternet.com> To: suffolk@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, 11 December, 2010 18:59:03 snip> I always understood that the church did not charge for baptisms,that all were welcome to the house of god. Richard Myhill <snip ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SUFFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message