Dictionary

chrisom child en · NOUN

Etymology

So called from the chrisom cloth used as a shroud for such children.

Meanings

1. A child that died within a month after its baptism.
   • Since children with crosses may be older than a month and those without younger, there is simply no means of telling whether they were chrisom children in either of the two possible senses. 2000, Bruce Gordon, Peter Marshall, The Place of the Dead, page 281:
   • There are numerous entries in the burial register of CHRISOM CHILDREN.” The earliest one is “a chrisom childe of Francis and Elizabeth Dobson, ” who was buried on January 6th, 1622. 1897, John Charles Cox, R. M. Serjeantson, A History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Northampton, page 191:
   • As is the case in most early registers, the records of St. Peter's contain frequent references to the burial of chrisom children. 1904, R. M. Serjeantson, A History of the Church of St. Peter, Northampton, Together with the Chapels of Kingsthorpe and Upton, page 118:
   • It is on a small stone in the chancel, underneath a brass figure of a chrisom child, and runs thus "Of Rog' Lee, gentilma' here, lyeth the son Bendict Lee Crysom, who soule ih'u p'dō." 1892, Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer, Church-lore Gleanings, page 148:

Forms