| Note | The Wesleyan Methodist baptisms does not show a baptism for William or the last four of his siblings. We may not doubt that they were baptized and separate records may perhaps be found from individual church records. There was a central repository where clergy were expected to return baptism records, but this was very hit and miss. It's evident that many clergy disregarded this. Five of William's siblings were recorded. They were all baptized on the same day and there records returned by one of the more amenable clergy.
Clergy of the day were hardly regimented. By law, from this era and onwards, clergy were required to send records of marriages to the civil authority wherein the marriage was performed. This meant sending records to municipal clerks of a given district, county, or, later, township or town. This wasn't always done. |