The Moravians would, on occasion, baptize the children of non-Moravians. But, they often drew the line at baptizing children when they had doubts about whether the child would be nurtured in the Church. They sometimes politely refused to baptize children. [I believe it was here in these notes that the actions of the Moravian missionaries in Virginia were recounted. They told of refusing to baptize children, even whole families, because they saw no opportunity for the church to raise the children in the faith.]
Records of Moravian baptisms were numbered consecutively [the Moravians were VERY orderly people]. Other information was typical name of the child, names of parents, birth and baptismal dates, and the sponsors. It was not unusual to find the place of the baptism and the name of the minister who performed the service recorded also. For a period, the sex of the sponsors was the same as the child, but this requirement was later dropped. For the genealogist, note should be taken that the maiden names of the mother and female sponsors were often recorded. The terms Brother and Sister, often found in the records, are a spiritual, not a blood relationship.
The Methodist Church was an offshoot of the Church of England, and was founded by three Anglican ministers, the two Wesleys, and Whitefield. They pursued an aggressive ministry throughout England and the Colonies, and won many converts. The name of the movement came from John Wesley, who said a Methodist was "one who lives according to the method laid down in the Bible". The men did not break with the Church of England until the American Revolution. After the war, they sent deacons and elders to America. Before long, the Methodist Church was officially set apart from the Church of England.
Baptism was to be administered to infants. By this act a person became a preparatory member, and the Church was to educate the child further. At first, there was no mention of emergency baptism, or conditional baptism, or sponsors. In 1784, as the group of elders and deacons left England for America, they carried no recommendations for confirmation. Because the natural audience for the Methodists was from the members of the Anglican Church, these views posed some problems for the Methodists. Many of the members went to the Episcopal Church for confirmation. By the standards of the day, the baptismal records in the Methodist Church have a minimum of information, being the name of the infant, the names of the parents, and the dates of birth and baptism.
Next we will look at the Reformed position. This group of Churches originated early, and the delay in discussing them until now does not imply that they were Johnnies-come-lately.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.