Time of Baptisms late 1700's

[SandySteeleDeFord]

Hello Genealogy Friends,

This is my first post. My name is Sandy Steele DeFord and I am in the U.S. I am trying to prove parentage of my ancestor, Donald Taylor, born in the Skipness area in 1787 or 1788. He went on to marry Christine Murray in 1813 and had 3 sons Archibald, Neill and John before leaving for Prince Edward Island, Canada in 1820. My dilemma is that there are 2 and maybe a third Donald baptism in a short time frame and not much other convincing evidence to sort it out.

My question is this, does anyone know what the timing of baptisms were like in the late 1700's? The OPR's were not very thorough, unlike the Norwegians who listed both birth and baptism dates in the record. I know that the church was pretty strict at that time. Would the parents have been expected to have the child baptized in a few days, weeks, or months of the birth? I have one possibility of parentage where the child may have been baptized 4 or 5 years after the birth, which my instincts tell me that this may be a remote possibility.

This intersects with his headstone date calculation, a scratchy Bible record, a biography done by his grandson and traditional naming patterns.

Many thanks for any advice you might be able to give me in this regard.

-Sandy