Winestead / Winested / Wistede / Wystede / Winestead-in-Holderness

Bulmer's Directory of 1892 entry for Winestead reports: "The old font [...] was long alienated from the church, and applied to base uses scarcely consistent with a belief in the sacred character of the sacament of baptism. It has been recovered and placed in its original position. The following entry relative to this font occurs in the register under the date August 25th, 1884: 'The old Winestead font was purchased from Miss Emily Owst Oldfield, of Keyingham, for £10, and brought back from Keyingham to Winestead. She told me it had been given to her grandfather, Mr. Owst, by one of the Hildyards [i.e., the local landed family], and it had always been known as the Andrew Marvel [cf. infra] font, from the tradition that it was used at his baptism." Bulmer's (ibid.) entry for Keyingham, notes: "Near the village is the Oldfield property, long identified with the name of Owst, from which family it descended by marriage to the late Mr. Oldfield. The late Mr. T. T. Owst was a dilligent collector of antiquities, and, among others, recovered the old Winestead font in which Andrew Marvell had been baptised" [i.e., Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), the reknown English politician and poet]. A short history of St. German by M. Edward Ingram [undated -- reproduced in www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/Descriptions/ERY/WinesteadChurchHistory.htm [accessed 14 February 2007] notes: "At the west end of the church stands the font, the bowl of which is medieval. For many years it stood in a field at Keyingham" [cf. Bulmer's supra]. The Antiquary (Saturday, November 30, 1872) prints a note from C. F. Corlass in which Mr. Oldfield is still reported as "the owner of the stone font in which Andrew Marvel [sic] was baptised".