Westfield United Reformed, Wyke:: baptisms
 

The Baptism Registers were thought not to start until 1846, twenty years after the church opened. The Registers for 1846 to 1912 are deposited with the Bradford branch of West Yorkshire Archives ref 5D81/1 and 5D81/6. Records from 1913 onwards are still at the chapel. We thank Ken Mead for allowing us to photograph them.

It has come to light that an earlier baptism register exists. This Baptism Register turned up in New Zealand belonging to the descendants of the Rev Benjamin Firth (1796-1853), the first minister of the church. His son Josiah emigrated to Australia in 1855, and the following year went on to New Zealand. He made a visit to Wyke in September 1890 according to the Spenborough Guardian. The register has four printed sections to be filled in on each page. The pages are printed on one side only and are not numbered, neither are the entries. See the example below.
 
certificate
 

Attached to the front of the register is a label which seems to suggest that the book was intended to be surrendered to The Commissioners for Inquiring into the State, Custody and Authenticity of Non-parochial Registers prior to Civil Registration starting in England in September 1837. The label is struck through with lines several times. We can find no evidence of any entries being submitted by the Independent Chapel at Westfield, Wyke in RG4 or RG6 at the National Archives. The register covers the years 1825 to 1837 but the entries are not in strict date order and there are some duplicates. Parts of the book have the look of a copy done in the same hand at the same time, rather than entries made at the time of the event. After page 17 the entries look messier. There are many misspellings and mistakes, which is surprising given that Benjamin Firth was also a schoolmaster and ran a school at Hartshead Manor for many years. The wording on the cover and the fact that it is printed on only one side of page begs the question that its intended use might have been that entries could be cut out and presented to parents as proof of baptism. The register has been deposited with West Yorkshire Archives Bradford Office but as yet there is no reference.
 
 
 
 

 

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