William DAVIES, one of my ancestors, was born in 1809 in Pontesbury, so I was interested to find a later baptism recorded for a William DAVIES in 1829 in the Non-conformist and Non-parochial Register on Ancestry. These records apparently told of the beginnings of the Baptist denomination in Pontesbury, evidenced by the number of adult baptisms that accompanied the church services. My William was married in October 1829 in Shrewsbury, so this may not have been him at all. Just one page later, the register declares William DAVIES to be "excluded from the church". Is there anyone familiar with the Baptist denomination in England who can explain that phrase to me? I am a Baptist from Canada but I'm really not sure what that means.
Hello Mike:
I never would have thought of that but it is certainly the case with some denominations. I appreciate your insight.
cookecutter
Hi,
My DAVIES Ancestors came from the Pontesbury area .
My 3rd Great Grandfather was also called William DAVIES.
Following a wrong trail, I have done a lot of research into the Pontesbury DAVIES'S.
If you would like to email me at redlightandbell-research(at)yahoo.com I would be very happy to share information, and see if we can perhaps even help each other knock down our respective brick walls.
Peter D.
Hello
If someone is 'excluded from the church' I would guess that they did something which upset the other members of that church and so exclusion was used as a means of punishment. Unless a minute book survives in addition to the comment in the register then it is probably impossible to establish exactly what had been going on.
One possibility that comes to mind is that he married a woman who was not a baptist but it is just a guess.
Mike