5,499 baptisms at Darlington St. Cuthbert spanning 1762-1797, giving us continuous baptisms at this church for 1762-1812. Residences mentioned besides Darlington include Archdeacon Newton, Black Banks, Blackwell, Bottom House, Clay Row, Cockerton, Favourdale, Fieldhouse, Geneva House, Hill House, Honeypot, London, Mount Pleasant, Nestfield, Ox Close, Oxen-afield, Polam, Rise carr, Salutation, Skerne House, Sunderland, and Yarm. 

Before baptisms starting in June 1767, there is this note from the curate: “The Parchment of this Register being exceedingly bad to write upon, I have been in use to keep the Register of Baptisms first upon Paper and then at some leisure time (after preparing the Parchment for receiving the Ink) to transcribe it into this Parchment Book: and unfortunately before the said Transcript was made of the Baptisms from the 26th of June 1767 to the 20th of March 1768 both inclusive, the Paper Register containing the same was taken away or Stolen out of one of the Drawers under the Table in the Vestry where it was kept (in order that my Curate and I might equally on all occasions have access to it) and probably has been wantonly or mischievously destroyed. I have therefore taken all necessary pains to supply the said Loss so that I would fain hope there will be very few, if any, omissions or mistakes. Those who were baptized privately were chiefly supplied from the Curate’s Pocket-book wherein he entered the names and dates of those so baptized at the the time of the Baptisms, and the others were collected from the Testimony of Parents, Sponsors, Midwives and Nurses, who were diligently examined with regard to the same. Signed Andrew Wood, Curate.”

There were lots of weavers and woolcombers living in Darlington at this time. Unfortunately the clerk did not record the mother’s name except for illegitimate births; this is unusual for this period. Samples:

• 24 Jan 1762 William Yarker, of Darlington, son of William Yarker (servant to Mrs. York)
• 11 Jun 1769 Alfred Laurance, son of Wilfred Laurance (late of Darlington, house & sign painter (who for a time passed for a member of the Church, and afterwards professed himself a Quaker, and has long since deserted his family)), about 7 years of age, now also in the workhouse
  [Note: Baptized with 2 siblings Ann and Elizabeth.]
• 28 Sep 1769 Joseph Miller, of Darlington, woolcomber, brought up in the principles of Quakerism, about 25 years of age
• 4 Jan 1778 John Taylor, of Darlington, son of Alphonson Taylor (hingemaker)
• 16 Nov 1788 Thomas Claxton, of Darlington, bastard son of Jane Claxton (spinster)
• 24 Apr 1793 Ann Hudson, of Darlington, daughter of Mark Hudson (woolcomber), 3 years old
• 30 Dec 1797 Christopher Stabler Yarrow, of near Darlington, born 25-Dec, son of Christopher Yarrow (farmer)

There are only a few Darlington baptisms in the IGI, so this collection of baptisms should be very useful to researchers.

This set of data also contained our 700,000th baptism !