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.ÿþchildren.These represented 87 percent of white births registered and 81 per-cent of all births, black and white.In the five years between 1730 and 1734, hebaptized 480, an average of 96 a year, representing 81 percent of all white birthsand 74 percent of the total births, evidence again for baptism as customarypractice.4The Christ Church Parish (Middlesex) register, though incomplete, offersadditional confirming evidence for the early decades of the eighteenth century.Between1710 and1733, during the ministry of Bartholomew Yates Sr., it recordsthe baptisms of 1,361 persons, again almost all infants and children, an averageof 57 yearly and representing virtually all of recorded white births but only2 percent of black births.5 In St.James Northam Parish (Goochland), later inthe century, William Douglas baptized 2,820 infants between 1756 and 1775, amean of 141 annually (ranging from 199 in 1767 to 105 in 1775), and representing99 percent of recorded births.6The fullest and most remarkable of baptismal registers is that of AlbemarleParish (Sussex) during the ministry of William Willie.Parson Willie baptized4,958 persons between 1740 and 1775, 4,112 whites and 846 blacks, averaging 138baptisms annually.In the1760s the annual average reached166 baptisms.Thesefigures represent 99 percent of white and 48 percent of black births recordedin the period.7Robertson s Bristol parishioners rarely, if ever, presented infants within twoweeks after birth.In the early 1720s no more than 3 percent of baptisms oc-curred within that preferred period.More than a third took place a year ormore after birth, mostly during the child s second year.If to that numberwere added the 18 percent baptized between six months and one year, at leasthalf of all the baptisms are accounted for.However, Bristol Parish behaviorchanged dramatically in the 1730s.Of 480 baptisms between 1730 and 1734, al-most two-thirds (63 percent) took place within three months after birth andonly 3 percent (as against 34 percent in the former period) after the first year.8Closer conformity marked the practices of Christ Church (Middlesex), St.James Northam, and Albemarle Parishes.One in five of Bartholomew Yates sparishioners brought their infants for baptism within fourteen days of birth.Another 48 percent were baptized with a month after birth, and, with onlyrare exceptions, the remaining infants were baptized within three months.9Given parish size and dispersal of inhabitants, these figures reveal an aston-ishing regularity and uniformity in religious observance.One to three months after birth was the norm for baptism in St.JamesNortham (50 percent of recorded baptisms).Fourteen percent of infants were.212 divine services
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