chrisom child

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

chrisom child (plural chrisom children)

1. (Christianity) A child that died within a month after its baptism.
   • 1892, Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer, Church-lore Gleanings, page 148:

     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."

   • 1897, John Charles Cox, R. M. Serjeantson, A History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Northampton, page 191:

     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.

   • 1904, R. M. Serjeantson, A History of the Church of St. Peter, Northampton, Together with the Chapels of Kingsthorpe and Upton, page 118:

     As is the case in most early registers, the records of St. Peter's contain frequent references to the burial of chrisom children.

   • 2000, Bruce Gordon, Peter Marshall, The Place of the Dead, page 281:

     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.