Disapproving vicar??

[Barbara Wilkinson]

Found in the (baptism) Parish register of Gwennap, Cornwall whilst looking for my ancestors:

"Mary, daughter of a whore secretly entertained by James Blake of this parish"

It amused me enough to jot it down - but I forgot to put the date...!!!

A case of a very disapproving vicar or parish clerk - hope nobody needs this to knock down a brickwall!:D

[TerryK]

How did he know if it were secret ?

[Barbara Wilkinson]

Now there's a question - and who brought the child for baptism .......?

[TerryK]

I`m Beginning To Have My Suspicions About This Vicar !

[robdurk]

Hmm.

I think my most amusing (and did I chuckle) is from Taunton, St Mary Magdalene:

A bastard son of Mary Virgin was baptised this day

And no, it wasn't around December...

Cheers

Rob

[ChristineR]

These little snippetts from the vicar can be a great find if they are your family. How else would you know that sisters shared the same man - ok, one kid might be an accident, but three? - and going to have them christened on the same day. Vicar is moved to write a short explanation :) Son of the mother's sister's husband.

Of course, this can also be a shocking revelation to someone who does not expect to find a whiff of scandal in their family at all.

Christine Randall
Victoria Australia

[knightroots]

John MONKHOUSE was the famous Rector of Bramshott, Hants who was not backward in coming forward at criticising his flock.
The burial register mentions several bastards & mothers of bastards - as
well as a number of people who died of foul disease or Liquor.
There is a transcript of his will in the burial register in which he left
£1,850 to Queens College Oxford to educate the poorest children of Bramshott "except those who are bastards, any child or children of persons who are given to whoring, thieving, cheating, tricking, biting,over-reacting or extorting" and "I most earnestly desire that the exception may ever be attended to from the regard that persons ought to have for the welfare of their offspring,will supply the best means I can leave behind me for counteracting the extreme dishonesty and great unchastity which prevail in the said parish and encouraging & promoting the probity and virtue of its inhabitants.I desire that the plan of teaching the aforesaid children may if practicable be that of Bell or Lancaster or any better that may hereafter be devised."

"Also to those who poisoned my faithful dog* my companion by day and my guard
by night I leave one shilling as a memorial"
*Carbo the finest of the Newfoundland race

Take care
Linda & Tony