Parish Records for Woburn, Bedfordshire

[barbara lee]

The name "Ebenezer" strongly suggests "Methodist" to me, or at least non-conformists. It could be that the father Ebenezer was unwilling to get his children baptised into the established church, and may have had them done in the "chapel". Perhaps those chapel records haven't made it onto the usual databases, or not survived. Then, later in his life, the son comes upon some change in his life, where he had to show a C of E baptism certificate, so he was baptised as an adult.
In one of my Welsh families a Methodist father with three daughters had them all baptised C of E on the same day in 1871 when they were teenagers. The father was later described as "of the Glebe", suggesting he was working on the Rector's farm. I suspect the Rector made it a condition of his employment that he had his girls "properly" baptised. Village histories suggest this particular Rector was notorious for his zeal in "converting" the Methodists.
Barbara

[AudreyF]

Interesting re the possibility of Methodist. I did think Ebenezer might have a religious connotation as it is quite an unusual name. Thank you.

[barbara lee]

The word Ebenezer means "Stone of Help" and comes from the Bible. In the First Book of Samuel the Israelites were twice defeated by the Philistines but were victorious in their third battle. To commemorate the event Samuel set up a marker stone and named it Ebenezer.
'Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us." So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again.' (1 Samuel 7:12-14)
Methodists later used the Biblical place-name Ebenezer for their chapels, as a reminder of God's miraculous help, and among the faithful the word came to mean anything that reminded them of God's presence and divine aid.
I have two direct ancestors called Ebenezer, unrelated to each other. One father was known in the family legends to have been a Methodist lay preacher. He and his wife, after they married, had three sons in reasonably quick succession, but all three died. No more children until they had been married for eighteen years, when another son came along. They called him Ebenezer.
The other father (great grandfather of the three teenage Welsh girls mentioned above) had married three times. No children by the first two wives. His third wife was aged 37 when he married her, and you'd think maybe he had given up hoping for a family. But there was a (possibly unexpected) son, also called Ebenezer.
In both cases the son must have seemed like a miracle, a sign of God's divine aid.
I wonder if every Ebenezer was some sort of "unexpected blessing" born to Methodists.
Barbara

[AudreyF]

An Update:

The link Lesley posted led me to the Woburn Family History Society website. I contacted them with what I knew and asked if they could help.

They have now confirmed that the parents of William Wright were Ebenezer and Mary and have confirmed dates of birth and baptism and a lot of extra information about Ebenezer and Mary.

So, thank you everyone and hats off to the kind lady at the Woburn FHS for her time and help.