I was laboriously going through the Banbury PR's and noticed sudden surges in the frequency of baptisms - esp around 1870. At first I thought they were just records of triplets withe accasional quads - but when a couple of instance of quins appeared, I began to wonder. Apart from a Victorian fertiltiy drug, I can only assume that the record was not about the actual births but a sudden rush to get all the kids baptised at once. But what was the reason for this? There was a smallpox epidemic that hit Banbury in 1871 but these baptisms were before that. What happened?

... and if anyone can tell me why there were no POTTER births in Banbury between 1720 and 1783, I would be obliged.