F or L next to baptisms and burials at St Giles Cripplegate

[Richard A Smith]

I've been looking at the parish registers for St Giles Cripplegate in the City of London for the late 17th and early 18th century.  All of the baptisms and burials (but none of the marriages) have an initial next to them which is always either L or F.  It starts in 1646 and stops in 1733.  Can anyone suggest what this might mean?

It's too long a period for it to be the initial of the officiant, and I don't think there were any other chapels in the parish which this might represent.  The parish did span the City boundary, so it could distinguish the inhabitants of the City from those who lived without, but if so, why L and F?  I suspect it must mean something else.  It doesn't coincide with when duty was charged on baptisms and burials.  Any ideas?

[Richard A Smith]

Answering my own question.  My suggestion that this referred to the parish within and without the walls was right after all.  City of London Parish Registers (1999) says:

bap entries 1646–1733 and bur entries 1665–1733 are marked either 'F' ('Freedom') or 'L' ('Lordship'), referring to the part of the parish in which the person baptised or buried was resident.  The 'Freedom' was that part of which lay within the City of London; the 'Lordship' was in the county of Middlesex.  From 1733 to 1966 the 'Lordship' formed the separate parish of St Luke Old Street.