Significance of a time of birth on a certificate

[Genevieve]

Hello,

I have just received a birth certificate for my gt gt grandfather William George HARVEY who was born on January 29th 1838 at "8 o'clock in the morning".

This is the first time I have seen a time of birth given on a cert. I know that more recently a time of birth is given in the case of a multiple birth. Was that also true in 1838 or was it usual/common practice to give the time of birth even for singletons then?

Thanks

[Guy Etchells]

Some registrars were not sure how to interpret the instructions and so included the time of birth for everyone to be on the safe side.
The majority only added the time for twins.

In the more sensible regions of the British Isles (e.g. Scotland) the time of birth was included for every birth, however they slept in and started rather later. ;-))
Cheers
Guy