The Church of St Chad, Rochdale in the County of -- Lancashire --

Baptisms at St Chad
in the Town of Rochdale
Baptisms recorded in the Register for 1582 - 1600
Baptisms for 1587 - 1591

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Due to decay and subsequent tearing, some pages of this volume are missing or in poor condition. Data has been lost, particularly the first few pages.

Entries reflect what is still legible. A few missing dates are calculable as baptisms were done just once a week and the minister helpfully delineated each 'batch' with a horizontal stroke. 

The original writers employed a number of methods of abbreviation, principally using the tilde a horizontal stroke placed above the word. Examples are usually commonly recognised forenames such as William [to Willm or Willia], but also occur in surnames where for example Hamer becomes Ham, Hardman becomes Hardma. In addition to use of the tilde, brevigraphs are employed, e.g. Parish [or Latin Parochie] become Pish and Pochie. Another brevigraph for -er is used extensively and is always in superscript. The surname Butterworth most frequently appears as Buttworth, Tattersall as Tatsall, Stanneringe and Brereley can be found as Stanringe and Breley. For simplicity Butt[er]worth[e] has been expanded throughout to Butterworth or Butterworthe and other unusual uses of brevigraphs expanded using [brackets].  There are also numerous marginal notations.  The Chadwicke family have many members marked marginally with V in this and subsequent registers. These appear to be later additions. 

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