Castletown

This is the register for St Mary's Chapel - opened in 1826 to replace an earlier church built under Bishop Wilson that stood on the same site. The Church was a chapel of ease to Malew - thus it was not licenced for Marriages in this period, nor did it have a graveyard.

The Baptismal Register starts by giving some entries found in the register of the old chapel prior to 1826 but this register does not appear to have survived - the format of entries is quite unusual for this period, though later adopted under the 1849 Act that changed all Baptismal Register entries, in that the residence and trade/proffession of the father was given. As in all but a few entries the residence was Castletown this has been omitted in the tabulated transcription. Each entry was numbered - however note that the date was that of reception into the congregation - in most cases the date of private baptism (or birth for late baptisms) was given, sometimes this can be found in the registers of other parishes though it does suggest that the chaplain kept a private register.

As Castletown housed the Barracks and the Chaplain was paid by the Government, most baptisms of the children of soldiers took place here (there are some Roman Catholic baptisms noted elsewhere) - after the early death of the Rev Thimbleby in 1827, the chaplain was Rev G S Parsons.

One key item that was not given was the family name of married women! The full name of the woman was only given if the birth was illegitimate - in which case the usual format was to give the woman's name first followed by the man's name - unlike all other parishes there are no entries in which only the woman's name was given.. Note that the IGI claims to have extracted records giving the woman's name - these are a figment of the Mormon imagination presumeably based on other information

• Baptisms
  • 1826-1839
  • 1839-1841 (register continues to 1849)