England Nonconformists Baptist Records (National Institute)

Baptist Records
National records are few since they did not have a hierarchical structure, and records generally are scattered with most at:


 * Angus Library in Oxford which holds the National Baptist Collection of records, including minute books of individual congregations, committees and associations, and district associations and papers of Stepney College and so forth.


 * Baptist Union in London has a range of books including the Baptist Year Books, dictionaries and memoirs of ministers from 1832 onwards.


 * Bristol Baptist College holds the archives of the Western Baptist Association and manuscripts of John Rylands and William Prynne.


 * The John Rylands Library in Manchester has most of the library of the Northern Baptist College.

Baptist Registers
Baptists are not renowned for their record keeping and very few early records survive, although many began to keep birth registers by the early 19th century. A complete list of those at the PRO in both the RG4 and RG8 classes is given by Breed (1995). He also gives details of those deposited at the Society of Genealogists, the Gospel Standard Baptist Library and the Strict Baptist Historical Society. Yet others are in county archives, or are still with individual chapels or ministers and their descendants. Any of these may have been microfilmed.

Baptist Births
They do not practise infant baptism so birth dates of newborns are recorded with parents’ names.

Chart: Examples from Baptist Birth Registers

It is illuminating to read any ministerial notes in these registers. Thus, at the Old Meeting House in Bedford, built on the site on which John Bunyan had written Pilgrim’s Progress, the following memoranda are found in the section for registration of births:

Chart 46: Memoranda in Old Meeting, Bedford Baptist Birth Registers RG4/272

A considerable number of births registered with the Protestant Dissenters Registry were Baptists, and as most, if not all, of these have now been added to the British Isles Vital Records Index on CD it is easy to check.


 * Baptist Adult Baptisms Baptism of adults was by immersion and in the adult baptism registers no parents are given.


 * Baptist Marriages As with other dissenters, there are four periods in the history of Baptist marriages:


 * 1688-1753 dissenting marriages did not confer legality but were tolerated; there were few Baptist marriages recorded.
 * 1754-June 1837 they were neither legal nor tolerated; again, few Baptist ones are recorded.
 * July 1837-1898 they were legal but had some stigma attached to them.
 * From 1898 they have been legal and completely equal to Anglican or civil marriages.

Thus until 1898 the most likely place to find a Baptist marriage is in the parish church not their own, but there are a few Baptist marriage registers extant.

Chart: Examples from a Baptist Marriage Register

Baptist Burials
Burials of Baptists took place in the parish churchyard except where the Baptist meeting house was fortunate enough to have its own burial ground; examples are shown below. Some Baptist chapels gained an income by providing a burial place for non-members, who paid a higher fee, and this is alluded to below. The Enon Baptist Chapel in Clement’s Lane off the Strand in Westminster became notorious for burying over 1,200 below the floor of the chapel itself between 1823 and 1842 when it closed. The stench must have been too overpowering! An enterprising chap turned it into a dance hall advertising

''Enon Chapel - Dancing on the Dead Admission 3d. No lady or gentleman admitted unless wearing shoes and stockings''.

Chart: Examples from Baptist Burial Registers

In the burial register for the Old Meeting House in Bedford the following memorandum is found: Chart: Memorandum in Old Meeting, Bedford Burial Register RG4/272

Baptist Monumental Inscriptions
What more could a family historian want than the inscription shown below? It includes copious genealogical details of himself, his wife and child as well as his career, and some information on a brother.

Chart: Monumental Inscription in Anabaptist, Later General Baptist Burial Ground, Tovil, Kent

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