Extreme age range in baptisms

[Davedrave]

I was just checking the date of an ancestor’s baptism when I noticed something interesting. George Beacham was born on 1 March 1840 and baptised in Lower Swell on 5 March, some four days old. In the entry immediately above, John Westmacott, son of John and Jane, an adult, was baptised. Something tells me that his parents would not have attended the ceremony (except maybe in spirit form). A note in the margin records that he was born in June 1752!

So maybe George Beacham was baptised very young because he threatened to exit the world, and maybe John Westmacott was baptised for the same reason, but he’d done a bit more living first.

[KGarrad]

My daughters are 45, and have never ben baptised.
If they so wish, they can chose to be baptised - it's their choice.

For myself, I was never given a choice?

My family have never been religious.

[Jebber]

I have two sisters in my husband’s tree who were baptised in 1923, one had already been married for three years, the other for seven years.

I only came across their baptisms by chance, as they were living and baptised miles  way from where they were born. All their siblings had been baptised shortly after birth.

[suey]

Baptisms within families can be interesting.

I have two brothers…both married and had children. One family baptised all their children as babies, the other, living in the same small village seem not to have baptised any of theirs.  All parties came from the same village, I’ve looked further afield but found nothing.

Another of their brothers was baptised age 33. 

[phil57]

My GGF and four of his siblings were all baptised on the same day, aged between 1 and 15. One other sibling who was 13 years old on the same date had been baptised within a few weeks of his birth. Four further siblings, each born later, were all baptised within a month of their respective births. All ten of them were baptised at the same church. There is no obvious reason for five of the baptisms to have been unduly delayed, that I have been able to discover.

[DianaCanada]

An ancestor was baptized the same day she was married.  She grew up as a Quaker and married Church of England.  Don’t know if this was the Church’s policy or at the behest of her husband.

[Annie65115]

My mother wasn't baptised as a child. After I was born, she wanted to have me baptised, but felt it wouldn't be right to do so if she hadn't herself been received into the church, so she organised her own baptism which took place a couple of months before mine.