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Descriptive name?

Discussion in 'General Genealogical Queries' started by Pauline, Mar 3, 2024.

  1. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    This isn't really a query but something I spotted while looking for a relative's baptism in Gloucestershire, and which I thought others might find interesting.

    It is a baptism in the parish of Minchinhampton in April 1660, and reads as follows:

    Whorsebratt the sonn of Margery But Baptised the 8 day

    Assuming the child's name was intended to be what it sounds like, who decided on it and is someone expressing their disapproval here?
     
  2. jorghes

    jorghes LostCousins Superstar

    Oh goodness...

    I wonder if Whorsebratt can be traced or had their name changed rapidly?

    I'm thinking that surely a woman couldn't name their own child that?
     
  3. Heather

    Heather LostCousins Member

    Poor child !! FMP has the baptism as a male 8 April 1660, Whoresbritt But , no fathers name, mother Margory But. Pauline did you see the original or a transcript?
     
  4. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    I was looking at the original register at Ancestry.
     
  5. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    The FMP transcription is from FamilySearch, though I'm not sure if FamilySearch transcribed it from the BT or the register. Ancestry have transcribed it as Whorstbratt Bub with the mother Margery as a father Marjory.

    I can see why someone might mistake the 'a' for an 'i' in the register. It's more clearly an 'a' in the BT but the middle bit of the name is pretty much unreadable there.

    I was wondering if the vicar actually baptised the child with the name Whorsebratt, or if that was just how it was recorded.
     
  6. Susan

    Susan LostCousins Member

    Was it a comment by the minister on the nature of the mother? Whore's brat, ye son of Marjory.
     
  7. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    I would guess it might have been!
     

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