Foston

FOSTON:
Foston Parish Non Anglican Births

The Wesleyan Methodists used one baptismal register for the entire Easingwold circuit rather than one for each chapel in the circuit. Oddly, since the Wesleyan chapel was built in Thornton le Clay in 1823, the first baptism does not appear there until 1864 and others do not follow until 1869. Just two familial names account for 19 of the 27 records. Yet in the 1851 census of Religious Institutions they claimed an average attendance of well over 50 on a Sunday evening. The Primitive Methodists did not declare any baptisms to the end of the century.

There are 82 births all but eight of which can be correlated between the census returns and the website FreeBMD. The eight are identified only through the census. There are a few possible births where the commonality of surname is so prevalent throughout the registration district in the nominated year that it would be unsafe to include them here. A few, but a very few of this list, might be Quakers, the Society of Friends having been established in Thornton le Clay since 1702, but their average attendance at the time of the 1851 census of Religious Institutions was only eight. The list may also include members of other Dissenting religions or simply those who from religious conviction, or the lack of it, or from an unwillingness or inability to pay the baptismal fees did not opt for a baptismal service.