Hi Paula
It's quite common to come across late baptisms, especially in the more rural parishes. Reasons for delay could be many, ranging from simple forgetfulness, through living a long way from the church, to problems with taxes when it wasn't just the affordibility of the amount required but a number of ministers refusing to keep records, - there was a body of opinion that the tax on baptisms, proclamations and burials (The Stamp Act between 1783 and 1794) was an unwarranted interference by the state in purely Church of Scotland matters (not least on the basis of what was guaranteed "for all time" in 1707 Treaty of Union as regards the complete freedom of the Established Church of Scotland to administer its own affairs).
Then there's the fact that the OPRs for many parishes are not continuous and have gaps where the records may never have been made, or just haven't survived, into which "Black Hole" your ancestor may unfortunately have fallen........... That's just one of the joys of Scottish research
But the complications don't stop there!!
Is there any indication from later records that the family belonged to a secession church, or were Roman Catholics, or Baptists etc., etc.??
As regards secession churches it would be worth a look at the entries for Old and New Deer in the Old Statistical Account at
http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/ to see what info it provides on the existence of secession congregations. If there were any then check in the National Archives of Scotland catalogue to see if there are any extant records.
In such a rural parish in the last few decades of the 18th C it's unlikely that kids weren't baptised, but the big question is in what church, and have the records survived
David
I've lost my grandpappy, well technically he's my GGGgrandpappy. Goes by the name of John Barclay, wife Barbara Bruce 1773-1861. He was a former innkeeper who died in Strichen 4th Dec 1859 aged 87. His death cert states father was William Barclay. Have found John on 1841 and 1851 census which say he was born in Old Deer. Have searched SP and LDS for 1770-1775 but no luck. I have got such a headache from banging it up against this brickwall. ](./images/smilies/brick-wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
Can anyone help please??!
) so I was a bit stumped by this one! I'm thinking about building a time machine so I can go back and find them easier!!