Posting on the ENG-HERTFORDSHIRE-L mailing list (Rootsweb) Robyn Thorpe wrote: Elizabeth BECK nee KIMPTON was the sister of Hannah KIMPTON my husband's 4 x gr grandmother who married Richard THORPE in Hitchin in 1766.  In the early 1800s the Thorpes belonged to the Back Street Pado Baptist Independent Church and I think the Kimptons could have belonged to this Church as well. Could Elizabeth BECK have been buried in this Church?  I have had the film for the PRs for this Church in at the LDS and unfortunately a lot of burials are missing.  Other than that would you know where else she could have been buried?

The Parish Registers were official documents which had to be kept in a legally defined manner. If people chose not to use the Church of England (they had no choice in the case of marriages) by going to a chapel, etc., there was no legal need for their family events to be recorded anywhere. Some non-conformist ministers kept their own records (sometimes in the form of a log book of event which could include meetings, etc.) and some of these have survived. Some chapels had their own burial grounds, some may have used the burial grounds of other chapels, and some may have used the parish churchyard.

Virtually all the surviving pre-1837 non-conformist "registers" have been microfilmed and if the information is not there it either never existed or has not survived.

The National Burial Index shows that some Kimptons were being buried at the parish church of St Mary, Hitchin, between 1800 and 1850, although most were children:

24 Apr 1811     William KIMPTON     2
3 Dec 1813     Robert Smith KIMPTON     3
28 Aug 1819     Eliza KIMPTON     2
6 Jun 1825     John KIMPTON     1
24 Dec 1829     John KIMPTON     45
27 Jun 1849     Sarah KIMPTON     70

There are also Kimptons (and variant spellings) listed in Pigot's Directory under Hitchin

John Kimpton, Ironmonger, Cock-street (1823/4) can probably be linked to John Kempton. Brazier/tin-plate worker, Cock Street (1839).

Widow Kimpson, landlord of the Plough, Bridge Street (1823/4) may well have been the mother of Thomas Kempton, landlord of the Plough, Bridge Street (1839).

In addition the 1839 edition shows Mrs Mary Kempton, Bancroft Street, and Thomas Kempson, baker, Bridge Street.