On 7 March 1885 a daughter was born to John and Susan Vaughan of Noah's Ark Kemsing. As I transcribed the Kemsing burial register for 1885 there is a very detailed description by the Vicar George Bridges Lewis of subsequent events. I have the impression that both infant and child mortality in the hamlet of Noah's Ark was extremely high and wonder what was the cause of so many deaths.
John and Susan notified the Vicar of their desire for the baby to be baptised and a Sunday date was set for the Baptism at Saint Mary Kemsing. However the baby died before Sunday,and what followed was the most extraordinary record I have ever encountered in transcription work since 1968.
"2 April 1885 attended the burial of an infant... I used such service as deemed expedient"
Reverend George Bridges Lewis meticulously records even what ecclesisastical clothing he did and did not wear "no surplice ".
"I received the party at the porch and read ....then entering the church I stood on the north side of the font with the coffin west of me closely." After baptizing the child's body "then to the grave" where the form of burial was carried out.
"I did so much because of the intention of the parents to have brought the child to baptism which was frustrated by its sudden death otherwise I should not have admitted the coffin to the Church at all Oh!!!"
I wondered why in so many infant burials private baptism was not thought expedient in a hamlet with such infant mortality and whether the extraordinary baptism caused the Vicar to examine his conduct. There are a number of possible interpretations of that Oh and three exclamation marks!
the detailed entry for this event can be found at the foot of page 68 of the register of burials from 1813-1911 and is numbered entry 544. There is no entry for the child in the Kemsing Baptisms register for the year and not unusually for the hamlet no birth or death registration takes place in the March quarter but an Ada Vaughan is registered in the June quarter. The burial register contains no name for the child.
The same volume during George Bridges Lewis period as Vicar includes the battles of Otford interments conducted by him.
My transcript of the Kemsing burial register is now complete and is being prepared for publication at Kent Online Parish Clerks in due course.
© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020
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