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Womack Baptisms 1761-1774

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Created in order to aid the investigation of the baptisms of the children of Richard and Sarah Womack in the period 1761 to 1774.

Richard and Sarah Womack had seven children who were baptised at Underbank Chapel with surname Humock. Their baptisms appear again in the registers at Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, Sheffield (both establishments were Presbyterian), surname Wommack, and in one case at St Nicholas, Bradfield (Anglican).

The baptisms are a series of single events that been recorded in at least 2 registers.

NOTE You will need a subscription to FindMyPast to view the images of the Chapel Registers. Also there are two sets of registers for Underbank, The earlier was sent to Somerset House in 1777 and contains important evidence regarding the baptisms that is not present in the later copy.

The table below shows the child’s forename and surname, the date, father and/or mother as recorded, and the place of baptism. The references are to the Transcription and images of the register entries.

Name Date Parent(s) Church/Chapel
Martha Humock 1761-11-07 Richard Underbank [1]
Martha Humock 1761-11-07 Richard St Nicholas [2]
William Humock 1763-04-17 Richard Underbank [3]
George Humock 1765-01-10 Richard Underbank [4]
George Wommack 1765-01-20 Richard & Sarah Upper Chapel [5]
Thomas Humock 1766-11-02 Richard Underbank [6]
John Humock 1768-06-09 Richard Underbank [7]
John Wommack 1768-11-20 Richard & Sarah Upper Chapel [8]
Sarah Humock 1770-04-20 Richard Underbank [9]
Sarah Wommack 1770-05-13 Richard & Sarah Upper Chapel [10]
Mary Humock 1774-04-24 Sarah Underbank [11]
Mary Wommack 1774-04-24 Richard & Sarah Upper Chapel [12]

The St Nicholas Registers

The case of Martha is fairly clear as It. can be seen in the image of the St Nicholas register page [13] that it is a late insertion, probably added in the preparation of the Archbishop's transcripts. Hence there is only one baptism which occurred at Underbank.

Even clearer is the case of Martha's mother Sarah Womack nee Revitt (1741 - not shown in the table) where the St Nicolas register contains a comment by the incumbent Chris. Buttertfield who adds "from Stannington, as given by Mr Smith baptised in ye Dissenting ?" [14]

The Underbank Registers

Mr Smith is the reverend Samuel Smith who was the incumbent at Underbank from 1730 to 1761, the year of his death. After this Mr J Hall was appointed Minister.

In March 1761 Mr Hall comments in the register The following (i.e. children in the register entries that follow) were baptised by the Rev. Mr Dickinson and by the Rev Mr Evans of Sheffield (see Upper Chapel below). [15]

Mr Smith's original had been continued by Mr Hall who apparently marked most register entries with a D or an E depending on whether Dickinson or Evans had performed the baptism. [16]

The reason for all this is explained later in an entry for 1771. "After I was ordained in August 1771 the children of the neighborhood were baptised by me and registered. J Hall ". [17] In other words he was not ordained when he took over in 1761 and presumably was not authorised to carry out the christenings.

The Underbank register is a copy of Samuel Smith's original that had been sent to Somerset House. It contains "Stannington Register Book faithfully copied from a Register Book kept by the late Mr Smith (Samuel Smith incumbent 1730 – 1761) of Stannington By J Hall Feb 26th 1777". [18].

The Rev. J Hall left for Rotterdam in 1780.

The Upper Chapel Registers

The Rev. Mr Dickinson and the Rev Mr Evans appear in ‘History of Upper Chapel Sheffield’ by J. E. Manning M.A. which says:

"This is Timothy Jollie's Register, from May, 1681, to July, 1702 continued by John Wadsworth, October, 1721, to December, 1744; by Thomas Haynes, from 1745 to 1758 ; by Joseph Evans, John Dickinson and Benjamin Naylor, 1758-98 ; by Benjamin Naylor, 1799-1805 ; by Rev William Whitelegg, minister of Fulwood, August, 1805, to January, 1806 by Nathaniel Philipps, April, 1806, to June, 1807; together with a supplementary register of baptisms by Joseph Evans, 1759-87.

It would appear that the baptisms at Underbank from 1761 until 1771 were by Joseph Evans and John Dickinson. It is noticeable that the ceremonies performed by Mr Dickinson are not in the Upper Chapel registers but those by Mr Evans are recorded there. This is true of Martha and William Humock/Womack and for many others. Unfortunately the entry for Thomas Humock is not marked with a D or an E but does not appear at Upper Chapel..

At the end of 1777 a note stating that some baptisms had been copied from loose scraps of paper found in the book & with the handwriting of the late Revd Mr Dickenson. So it is possible that Martha, William & Thomas's entries may have been lost this way [19]


Discussion

The baptism dates in the Underbank registers are earlier than those for Upper Chapel which would suggest that the baptisms actually took place at Underbank. The register entries detailed above would support this conclusion.

At Underbank the father is named as Richard Humock but Sarah’s name is omitted except for the case of Mary (1774) after her father had died.

At Upper Chapel both Richard and Sarah are named as Mary's parents with surname Wommack. Could this indicate that the news of Richard's death had not yet reached Sheffield, again showing that the baptism actually took place at Underbank probably performed by Mr Hall.

We would also need to assume that Mr Evans knew the correct surname and that Mr Hall simply took the name used by the Rev. Smith. Further, the dates may refer to the those at which the registers were updated, rather than the actual baptisms.

Summary

  • Martha, William and Thomas were baptised by the Rev. Dickinson who did not maintain the registers consistently so their entries were not carried forward.
  • Richard and Sarah are both named in the Upper Chapel registers which was normal practice for non-conformists
  • It is likely that the Rev. Hall continued with the practices and surnames used by his predecessor Mr. Smith
  • The Upper Chapel registers were updated using information from Underbank so the dates might be entry dates rather than actual dates.




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