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Archiver > LONDON > 2002-12 > 1039094232


From: "Robert Cunning" <>
Subject: Re: [Lon] Crisem child
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 00:18:49 +1100


Sorry, I clicked reply, should have been "reply all". Cheers Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Cunning" <>
To: "Eve McLaughlin" <>; <>
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 12:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Lon] Crisem child


> Hello from Australia. see www.bartleby.com/81/3529.html
>
> E Cobham Brewer 1810-1897 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898
>
> "Chrisom or Chrism signifies properly the white cloth set by the
minister
> at baptism on the head of the newly anointed with chrism i.e. a
composition
> of oil and balm. In the Form of Private Baptism in this direction 'Then
the
> minister shall put the white vesture, commonly called the chrisome upon
the
> child.' The child thus baptised is called a chrisom or chrisome child. If
it
> dies within the month, it is shrouded in the vesture; and hence, in the
> bills of mortality, even to the year 1726, infants that died within the
> month were called chrisoms. (The cloth is so called because it was
anointed.
> Greek chrisma, verb chiro, to anoint)"
>
> 'A made a finer end and went away an it has been a chrisom child'
> Shakespeare: Henry V., ii. 3
>
> Cheers Bob
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eve McLaughlin" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 11:12 AM
> Subject: Re: [Lon] Crisem child
>
>
> > In message <>, Al & Melissa Zimmerman
> > <> writes
> > >I found an entry in a parish register which lists the burial of a
> > >"Crisem child of........" Can anyone enlighten me as to what this term
> > >means? I have looked in numerous Latin dictionaries and on ancient
> > >terms websites, but have only found one reference which said it was an
> > >archaic term for the movement made during copulation!
> >
> > That is not so, and whoever dreamed it up was talking nonsense.
> > . The frequent opinion is that this is a child who died between
> > christening, when it was wrapped in a chrisom cloth, and a month later,
> > when the mother was churched and the cloth returned (washed, I hope).
> > However, as the vast majority of the babies so buried are nameless, it
> > seems likely that this is a baby dying BEFORE formal christening,
> > possible having been signed by the midwife only.
> > The word occurs as Chrisom, chrisomer, christomer. (?a baby ripe for
> > christening?)
> >
> > --
> > Eve McLaughlin
> >
> > Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians
> > Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society
> >
> >
> > ==== LONDON Mailing List ====
> > London-Middlesex Surnames List:
> >
> > http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~hughw/london.html
> >
>

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