Births & Baptisms in the 1800’s

The speaker for the May meeting was Tom Doig who, once again, gave a fascinating and informative talk; this time the topic was “Birth and Baptism in the 19th Century”. Tom is a Social Historian with a particular interest in the rôle of women in 19th century rural communities. He illustrated his talk with references from his local area of North Hertfordshire and further afield.
The whole point of marriage was the production of children: there was, therefore, no stigma attached to the bride being pregnant at the time of the wedding. Some estimates put the number of pregnant brides as high as 50% in the Ag Lab section of society – this would be much lower in the middle and upper classes. There was however stigma attached to not being married at the time of the birth. Unmarried mothers without means of support might well end up in the Workhouse. Induced miscarriage was not uncommon and was inherently dangerous.
There were certain women who were “allowed” to have illegitimate children. Tom referred to a Sarah Robinson from his own village whose profession is given in the census as “female barber”. There is a painting of Sarah with her children outside her cottage with her children on May Day. Sarah had several children: all the boys went on to be apprenticed and the girls all went into domestic service, at a time when employment was not always available. Sarah owned her own property and was able to support her family although she was an unmarried mother. Tom also talked about some of the May Day traditions that prevailed in the 19th century including dancing round the Maypole and a version of trick or treat where the children took May Sticks round to ask villagers for treats.
Tom then went on to talk about the arrangements that were necessary for marriage. The legal part of marriage was the publication of the Banns, by being called or bawled by the Parish Clerk on three consecutive Sundays in church after the end of the service or in the market square of specified towns (eg: Wisbech and Kings Lynn but not Peterborough). The Banns are read by the Clerk and then signed by the Minister. Technically the couple were married once the third set of Banns had been read; the bride did not attend the church services where the banns were called and there is a tradition whereby the groom and his supporters leave the church by the South door following the third reading and the groom crosses over a mop or brush to greet his bride and her friends. This is known as marriage “over the brush” and at a time when money was in short supply this meant that the couple did not have to pay for the further costs of a church wedding which would have been a further 5s. The marriage lines (a signed record) would be kept carefully by the bride. The cost of reading the Banns in 1820 was 7s 6d for three readings (about ¾ of a week’s wage) and this would be double if the couple lived in different parishes. Some vicars came to an arrangement between themselves to allow couples to “live” in one parish so only one set of Banns would be necessary. This is why it sometimes seems that the bride and groom are living together. If the parishes were too far apart for an arrangement to be made the bride and groom might opt for a marriage by licence which would cost 10s which was 5s less than two sets of Banns.
Tom then went on to talk about some of the traditions surrounding childbirth. A woman was not expected to go out of the house for a month before the expected birth (confinement) and for between 4 and 6 weeks after the birth. A monthly nurse would come and stay with the expectant mother until the baby was on its way at which time the she would summon the midwife; this could be done by hanging a cloth out of the window or by lighting a bonfire at night. The monthly nurse would then move on to the next household. The room for giving birth would be set up in a specific way with the doors and windows shut and a fire lit and a bucket of water at hand. (In Scotland all the windows and doors were opened.) The midwife would be accompanied by two Gossips – from God’s Sibs – whose role was to bring the mother up to date with all the local news. As soon as the baby was born the baby would be given to the Gossips who determined the sex of the baby and checked for obvious signs of disability or deformity. An obviously damaged baby would be disposed of using the bucket of water. Some problems such as blindness or deafness were not obvious at birth. The midwife would burn the placenta on the fire – there was however a tradition in Fenland of cooking the placenta in an omelette and feeding it to the new mother. (!)
A baby could not be baptised in church until it was at least four weeks old but a sickly baby could be baptised by the midwife and the registration of the baptism was made in church at a later date if the child survived. In the case of illegitimate babies the Gossips were also supposed to ascertain who the father was. The names given to 19th century babies tended to be those from the Bible, Saints, monarchs and family names; some names like Asa could be for either sex (sometimes this is not obvious at birth) and the names Martha and Matthew are sometimes used in these cases.
The new mother was allowed to return to society four to six weeks after the birth and after the churching service – in 1820 the Minister and Parish Clerk each cost 1s 6d about 30% of the average Ag Lab’s weekly wage. This was a cleansing service as required in Leviticus 12: vv2-7.
Yet again Tom brought the past to life with his insights into 19th century marriage and birth customs.
[Margaret Lake]