Merry Christmas

Were any of your ancestors baptized or married on Christmas Day?

Christmas in Cornwood and nearby parishes in Devon has been a time when many families chose to have their children baptized at the local parish church, whether born then or not. The earliest Christmas Day entry preserved in the Cornwood baptism register was for Richard Maddocke, baptized in 1689. No doubt there were earlier ones however few records are available prior to 1685. In nearby Plympton St. Mary parish, the earliest Christmas Day baptism on record occurred in 1608.

1689 December 25 - baptism entry for Richard Maddocke, in Cornwood parish register

It was not uncommon for more than one family to have a child baptized during the Christmas season, particularly if any of December 24^th, 25^th or 26^th fell on a Sunday. In my four parishes, Cornwood, Harford, Plympton St. Mary and Plympton St. Maurice, the most baptisms on any of those days was four: Sunday, December 24, 1837; and Tuesday, December 26, 1971, in Plympton St. Mary parish. 

In the 1837 Christmas Eve baptisms only one of the children had been born in December of that year. Possibly the parents waited until this special day when many of the relatives could come to Plympton St. Mary to attend the ceremony. Similarly in 1971, the four children baptized on Boxing Day had been born in April, September (2) and November.

Christmas Eve, 1837 baptisms in Plympton St. Mary parish, Devon

Between 1685 and 1995, there were 38 baptisms on Christmas Day in Cornwood parish, seven in Harford between 1699 and 1993, 69 in Plympton St. Mary between 1603 and 1982 and 16 in Plympton St. Maurice between 1616 and 1963.

Marriages were not quite as numerous. In Cornwood, there have been a total of 11 marriages on Christmas Day between 1685 and 1994; in Harford, only two between 1699 and 1978; in Plympton St. Mary, 32 between 1603 and 1975; and in Plympton St. Maurice, 11 between 1619 and 1971.

These are just some interesting statistics but probably not overly important in the greater scheme of things. From a genealogical perspective, however, many of the entries suggest that Christmas period baptisms do not necessarily represent the time those individuals were born. In the baptism registers of my four parishes, birth dates are shown for 96 individuals who were baptized on December 24^th, 25^th or 26^th between 1648 and 1979. None of them were born on any of those dates. And only 25 were even born in the month of December.

There is probably no doubt that residents of the parish celebrated Christmas enthusiastically, especially in the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries, possibly more so than in later decades.

A charity was set up in Cornwood Parish, in 1700, in which my 6^th great-grandfather, Nicholas Shepheard, played a role. The Rooke Charity combined with another established by Reverend Duke Yonge in 1811. Initially organized to assist the poor of the parish, it continues to this day helping out many residents in the community. Among other initiatives, every Christmas they give all old age pensioners £25 each.

In Cornwood, at least, traditions continue. Each year the members of the community participate in a special event – turning on the Christmas lights. The Churchwarden for St. Michaels and All Angels Church, Marilyn Sharpe, had the honour of flipping the switch on the evening of December 7^th this year.

Afterward, everyone celebrated the event in Cornwood Square with tasty mulled wine and mince pies with clotted cream, and participated in the singing of Christmas carols.

Marilyn Sharpe turns of the Christmas lights

Cornwood residents enjoy the singing of Christmas carols

Whatever your traditions are, I hope you enjoy every one of them. May I take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous year in 2014!

Baptism images reproduced here are used with the kind permission of the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office (PWDRO), Images were downloaded from FindMyPast. Cornwood photos were taken by Kelvin Butcher, to whom I would like to express my thanks and appreciation for allowing me to reproduce them here.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He serves as the Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

Military References in the Parish Registers

Wars certainly impacted the affairs of many parishes in the past. Often there are glimpses into those conflicts through entries in parish registers.

Between 1643 and 1645 there were 42 entries for soldiers buried in Plympton St Mary. They were very likely killed during the English Civil War which raged in nearby regions. A number of battles involving Royalist and Parliamentarian forces occurred in the region around Plympton St. Mary parish.


1644 April to June burials in Plympton St. Mary parish, Devon - soldiers highlighted

Most of the soldiers were probably from other parts of the country so searches for them in their home parishes would be fruitless. After the war, many individuals may have chosen to stay in the areas in which they served, taking up new occupations. Family historians who have a suspicion an ancestor was a soldier or lost track of someone during times of war might look in the areas where battles were fought to find them – either dead and buried, or married to a local girl.

Below we see some probable casualties from the Franco-English war of the late 1600s. Those killed overseas were probably transported back and buried in a cemetery near the port where the ships landed, one of those being Plympton St. Mary.
 

1689 September and October burials in Plympton St. Mary parish, Devon - soldiers highlighted

Burial images reproduced here are used with the kind permission of the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office (PWDRO),  Images were downloaded from FindMyPast , or copied from my own microfiche.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He serves as the Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

Getting to Know the Cornwood Churchwarden

One of the great benefits I have derived from volunteering as the Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for Cornwood and other Devon parishes was in meeting Marilyn Sharp, the Churchwarden for St. Michaels and All Angels Church in Cornwood.

St. Michaels and All Angels Church in Cornwood, Devon, England (photo by Wayne Shepheard, 2004)

From the first time I made contact with her, she has been totally supportive of my goal to learn everything I could find out about the parish where my Shepheard ancestors originated. She willingly shared data she had accumulated about the burials in the church cemetery along with other information about the community and its residents. In my assisting of others researching their families in the area, she has often been able to pass along tidbits about the people and places where they had lived.

In 2004, my wife, Linda, and I had a chance to visit the area. Marilyn, her husband, Bas, and friends, Brenda and Graham Gregory, took a great deal of time out to show us all around the parish, as well as direct us to sites of interest in the surrounding area. I had a chance to see all of the places I had only read about, mostly online, and, most importantly, discover the former homes of many members of my Shepheard ancestors. Many of the residences dated back to the 17^th century. Marilyn’s kind attention made the visit most memorable.

One amusing story happened when we drove out to the original Shepheard estate, called East Rooke. It highlights one aspect of meeting people and doing things on the Internet.

Left: the main house at Rooke, the ancestral home of the Shepheard family in Cornwood, Devon, England; right: Wayne in one of the typical parish lanes; both photos taken in September 2004

In early 2003, just after I became an OPC, I had an email from a school-girl in the area who had found my website.  She was looking for information about the population of Cornwood in the 1800s for a class assignment.  I was able to provide her with the totals from the various censuses between 1841 and 1901 for her report.  Anyway, it turned out that she and her family rented East Rooke, the farm that used to belong to the Shepheard family.  Small world! 

When we went to see the place in the fall of 2004, Marilyn, who was very anxious to give us a proper and friendly introduction to the current resident, approached the girl’s mother and introduced me as “the man who has been talking with your daughter on the internet!”  As you might imagine, Mom was bit taken aback to start with but warmed up once she heard the whole story.

On several occasions, Marilyn has carried messages back and forth between me and the current Vicar. I think, because of her involvement, I have been able to obtain significantly more information about the parish than an OPC might normally get. Many times, as well, she has been able to provide me with some historical perspective on the parish and area families.

We were able to partly return the favour by entertaining Marilyn, Bas, Brenda and Graham for a few days in 2008 – showing them places around Calgary, Alberta, Canada that were very different from the pretty little villages and countryside of Southwest Devon, England.

Left: Graham, Brenda, Bas, Linda, Marilyn and Wayne at the Hoodoos near Drumheller, Alberta, Canada;

Right: Bas, Marilyn, Brenda and Graham at Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada; both photos taken in September 2008

We have become very good friends with Marilyn and Bas over the past decade. We regularly exchange messages, and the inevitable email jokes, and try to keep up with the happenings of our two families.

It is very valuable for family historians to get to know people who live in the areas where their ancestors lived, to get first-hand observations about, and some insight into the history of the locations.

In our case we have been truly blessed with meeting and getting to know the Churchwarden of Cornwood.

Thank you Marilyn, for all your help and for just being you!