Farnborough Saint Giles Kent Baptismal Register 1893-1908

This clasped volume for 800 Baptisms is completed with 798 entries and two crossed out or blank entries.
It had been practice in earlier Baptismal registers of the parish for those from 1845 onward baptised at Bromley Union Workhouse Chapel to be copy entered into the parish register.
At the beginning of this volume Reverend Fred J Kelly is Vicar and Reverend Philip H Percy is Chaplain to Bromley Union Workhouse and Percy or a scribe copy baptisms at the Workhouse Chapel. It is worth bearing in mind that the chapel also was used for the children of staff and also local parishioners in the northwest of the parish.
There are entries for Reverend J Pulling Curate although these are few in number.
In autumn 1898 Reverend Percy signs entries as Curate in Charge prior to the arrival of Reverend G Lombard MA who resides at Netherby (Bush's Directory 1899 and 1900);Reverend Percy resides at Feniton Farnborough. In 1902 and 1903 Bush's Directory Lombard is residing at The Rectory.
Lombard ends the practice of recording Workhouse Chapel Baptisms in the register in December 1898 and until September 1904 the register only contains parish baptisms. There is a sense that he insists that people come to Saint Giles from all areas of the parish.
For the searcher there are two valuable records of Workhouse Baptisms of children and adults and Births to cover this gap in parish register entries. I have transcribed both records:
Hospital Chapel baptisms
Bromley Union Births Register (1900-1913) Bromley Historic Collections reference 846 GBy/W/I/b12 which includes still births and supplements Anglican Baptisms.

In September 1904 Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch is appointed Vicar and also serving as Chaplain to the Workhouse he ensures that all Workhouse Chapel baptisms are copied into the Parish Register.
This register also records in a marginal entry by Ebenezer Welch "By an Order in Council dated 7 August 1905 the parish of Farnborough was formally transferred from the Diocese of Canterbury to the Dioces of Rochester. One of the last entries in 1908 records a Canon of Rochester Diocese performing a baptism.

© Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019

Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch

Image with kind permission of Bromley Historic Collections

Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch was born in Wimbledon Surrey in 1856 and married Jane Steers in 1880. In 1886 Ebenezer graduated from the London College of Divinity and two years later was appointed curate of Clerkenwell from 1888-1899. Ebenezer and Jane were parents of five children all born in London before Ebenezer was appointed Chaplain to Bromley Union Workhouse at Locksbottom.
In the 1911 Census completed in his own hand all five of his children live in the Parsonage in Farnborough his eldest daughter is 29 and single. His wife's mother aged 86 is also resident with the family.
He served in his capacity as Workhouse Chaplain as well as Rector and Vicar of Farnborough parish  1904-1927 and his dedication to the Workhouse staff and inmates is borne out in Bromley Guardians Minutes. Welch established a Workhouse Library which was situated within the Workhouse Chapel and this work as Librarian was recognised by an annual honorarium by the Board of Guardians.
The Baptismal Register of the the Workhouse Chapel contains baptisms almost wholly conducted by Welch;the subsequent register of Farnborough Hospital is almost entirely the work of Welch. The Farnborough Parish Register 1908-1918 contains 799 baptisms and very few entries are attributable to Curate baptisms. The image above taken in the doorway of Saint Giles the Abbot Parish Church dates from 1927 when Welch died aged 71.
For the transcriber Ebenezer's handwriting represents a challenge and some of his spelling of surnames is rather approximate. However by comparing his spidery and inconsistent capital letters with other record sources and directories it has been possible to produce a complete transcript for Kent Online Parish Clerks which will be published online in due course.
Welch was an integral part of caring for inmates of the Workhouse in the first quarter of the twentieth century as well as fulfilling his parish duties as Rector. All baptisms at The Workhouse Chapel were copied by him into the Farnborough Parish Register of baptisms. The Workhouse Chapel baptisms are mainly illegitimate children from all parishes in the Union, although the Hospital Maternity unit also dealt with complicated deliveries and parishioners of Farnborough in the Northwest of the parish would also have new born children baptised there.

© Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019