The Primitive Methodists founded their circuit based on
Norwich in 1826, after a few years of impromptu meetings a more formalised
setting was achieved in 1832 with the building of a chapel in the Lakenham
area of the expanding city. Although the circuit is based upon the city
these entries show residences across a wide range of Norfolk, albeit with
a preponderance in the city and its suburbs. There are many entries for
those areas notable for nonconformity in the county such as Carleton Rode,
Tibenham, Diss and Wymondham.
Three registers cover the period of this transcript and the books are
confusing to say the least. There would appear to have been two parallel
registers from the start of the circuit, one of these registers was then
terminated in 1870 only to become the register of the Wymondham circuit.
Care has been taken to ensure that no entries are duplicated but the cutoff
date has been assumed to be the first entry for April 1870 where a notable
change of handwriting occurs. Because of these parallel registers the
numbering used is a counter prefixed by a reference alluding to the Norfolk
Record Office catalog. Register 1 - FC41/1 is a nonstandard ruled book
with 10 entries across a double-spread of pages, Register 2 - FC25/230
is a similar ledger and is the book which passed to Wymondham, Register
3 - FC79/1 is a normal parish baptism register format with 8 entries per
page. Register 1 & 3 are filmed on Microfilm MF1727; Register 2 on
Microfilm MF1600 both in the collection of the Norfolk Record Office.
Both films are relatively modern and the images are the best achievable
considering the poor state of the early registers. A word must be said
about the quality of handwriting and clerical accuracy. There are many
differing hands involved in these entries and most are barely literate
(it would appear), spelling is highly idiosyncratic and has been left
as written, the date sequence is indicative of books which have been made
up of entries entered in retrospect and doubt must be raised as to the
accuracy of that process & in addition there are numerous examples
of clerical error such as baptism date before birth date, missing entry
detail including in some instances child's name and or surname; there
is even a lady named "William" in these entries.
As a consequence of the poor clerical state of these entries users are
advised to treat the details as indicative; there is also because of the
poor handwriting a strong likelihood of transcription misreading having
occurred - this dataset definitely carries a health warning!
|