Neonatal baptisms in hospital

[salt]

Does anyone know if registers were kept of babes baptised in hospital (Cheshire 1953) soon after birth? I realise that anyone can baptise a babe, but wonder if it was performed by a chaplain were records kept and retained by the hospital.

Many thanks, Salt

[BumbleB]

I don't know the answer to your question, but would suggest that perhaps you contact the hospital concerned, or Cheshire Records Office.

[MercianSte]

I think it would be the local vicar who would preform the baptism and it would be recorded in the church register as a private baptism.


This is what happened to my uncle who was baptised at the hospital in Burton upon Trent just before death in 1947 (he was only 2 months old).

[louisa maud]

Yes, it is usually a church nearby where the incumbent would visit hospitals, and possibly shown as "P" in the column denoting it was private, I was almost baptised at birth as I apparently wasn't expected to live, but after a few days I turned the corner and her I am now and got my bus pass ??

Louisa Maud

[salt]

Many thanks, will follow up these suggestions. Salt

[clayton bradley]

Any child baptized in hospital would have a follow-up ceremony in church, unless the child died. My sister was baptized in hospital and several months later in church. There is no record as such of the first baptism. cb

[salt]

I should have been more precise in my question. In addition to those baptisms performed privately by a minister  and entered in the parish register, some of which would be followed by a public baptism in church, I wondered if a record was kept of those baptisms carried out by hospital staff. These, presumably, would not appear in the parish register, and in my experience of transcribing parish registers I have not come across such a baptism by a lay person.

I ask as I have a birth and death certificate of a neonatal death, with a variant in the given name.  The cottage hospital where the birth occurred no longer exists, but I will check the parish register.

[weste]

I remember having a conversation with a vicar, yes she kept records baptised in hospital but records got lost when hospital got joined with another but that's not the area of the country you are taking about. The staff were warned not to lose them apparently!

[AdrianB38]

... I wondered if a record was kept of those baptisms carried out by hospital staff. ...

Hmm. An interesting question. But I'd think that I'd precede it with asking whether, in reality, such baptisms were ever done. I know that in theory such a thing could happen but I have my considerable doubts whether anyone in (say) a 20th century hospital would ever do such a thing - "Not my job", "What if I got the words wrong?" are some of the responses that spring to mind. (I'm tending to assume 20th century here because of the reference to hospitals...) And if it did happen, as it might with more old-fashioned staff if the chaplain couldn't get there in time, why would the hospital record it? That implies a commitment on behalf of the hospital to religious matters.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it happened in (say) the 19th century with midwives attending home births - the effect of the religious revivals of the time and no available chaplain.

Don't get me wrong - I don't want to deny it ever happening - it's just that if there are no records visible, my gut reaction (which can be wrong) is that it's because there were no records in the first place. It's certainly worth an enquiry...