The Peculiar People of Essex

[Suziewoozy22]

Hello, does anyone know if / how the Peculiar People of Essex kept baptismal and marriage records? Specifically in the late Victorian period? For anyone not familiar they were an evangelical branch of methodism who split and formed their own church. Eventually they split themselves into old and new Peculiars. They were linked to the Oxford Movement and are now part of the evangelical Church movement. Any information gladly received.  Thank you.

[trish1120]

I don't even pretend to be an expert in this but have done a little research.

It appears to me that they they may have married/been buried in other Churches.

Whether they kept separate records I can find nothing on.
(someone else may be able to help)

Re James Banyard;
He married St Andrews, Rochford twice (1821/1845)
Both he and his 2 Wives are buried there also + his Son Josiah 1861.

Cant see any bapt there for James' children in Essex so maybe they did do their own.

trish

[trish1120]

They consider that every service is the sacrament, and they have no special form.
In the same way they have no baptism****; infant or adult creeds, confessions of faith, forms of prayer, ministers-all these things they have done away with. They profess to have no leaders; yet they have elders, but they claim that they are simply elders by lapse of time alone.

https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/P/peculiar-people.html

[Suziewoozy22]

Thank you for your replies. Would you say it looks like they don't baptise children or they just don't keep records? Or have I misunderstood?

[trish1120]

It reads to me that they do not baptise.

[Rena]

As far as genealogy is concerned, it doesn't really matter what they believed because the law stated every birth and marriage had to be legally recorded in civil registers.

The Peculiar People were a Christian movement that was originally an offshoot of the Wesleyan denomination, founded in 1838 in Rochford, Essex, by James Banyard, a farm-worker's son born in 1800.

Civil Registration was introduced by the Government following the Reform Act of 1832 and became law in 1836, with the first register starting on 1st July 1837.

[Suziewoozy22]

Many thanks for the responses. Unfortunately it's the baptismal records (if there are any) that I need, specifically in the 1880's. Many of the family I know to be peculiar people have baptism records in C of E churches, but some branches do not. Some also just stop at the start of the 1880's. Anecdotal family history states that baptisms were being done during this period, but whether these 'baptisms' were more unlogged family get togethers for blessings or whether they had a formal record of the service I open to debate. Thank you all anyway.