Anyone particularly interested might consult D. J. Steel, National index
of parish registers. Vol. 1. Sources of Births, marriages and deaths
before 1837 (I) (London, 1968), p.72.
According to this source chrisom was the holy oil used to annoint babies
at baptism, whereas the chrisome was the cloth placed over the head to
prevent the oil from being rubbed off. Steel suggests that the cloth
remained on the head of the baby until the mother was "churched".
(Churching was a Catholic 'ceremony' of thanksgiving after childbirth --
and, so far as I know was in vogue until Vatican II.)
However, Steel also suggests that Chrisome was used (in burial
registers) synonymously with unbaptised and notes that Dr. Johnson
defined it as dying within a month of birth.
So plenty of possibilities.
Matthew Woollard
> -----Original Message-----
> From: From: Local-History list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Higginbotham
> Sent: 06 January 2005 16:53
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Unusual PR entry
>
>
> From the OED:
> Chrison/crisom:
> In obituaries and the like, applied to a child that died
> during the first month or shortly after baptism, and was
> shrouded in its chrisom-cloth.
>
> Chrisom-cloth: A white robe, put on a child at baptism as a token of
> innocence: originally, perh. merely a head-cloth, with which
> the chrism was covered up to prevent its being rubbed off. In
> the event of the child's death within a month from baptism,
> it was used as a shroud: otherwise it, or its estimated
> value, was given as an offering at the mother's purification.
>
> Peter Higginbotham
>
>
> Angie Blaydon wrote:
>
> >In the Registers for Bath Abbey in 1644 I have come across a burial
> >entry for 'A crisom child'. I have checked various reference books,
> >viz: Latin dictionary, Oxford Companion to Local and Family History,
> >and the Local Historian's Encyclopaedia, but can find
> nothing remotely
> >like 'crisom'. Can anyone tell me the meaning of this entry
> please? It
> >would appear that the mother of this child was buried seven
> days later.
> >
> >Many thanks
> >
> >Angie
> >
> >
>
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