pro-parentn.

1651 D. Cawdrey Inconsistencie Independent Way 210 If the next Parents apostate, or be cast out of Church, the fore-fathers or pro-parents may give a title to baptism.

1661 Grand Deb. Rev. & Alteration Bk. Common Prayer 98 Who made those Sureties Guardians of the Infants that are neither Parents, nor Pro-parents, nor Owners of them?

1680 R. Baxter Def. Nonconformists Plea for Peace xvi. 27 It is not the Parents Christianity or Faith that they require, nor the Grandfathers, nor any Pro-parents, or Adopters or Proprietors.

a1703 R. Kidder Demonstr. of Messias (1726) ii. xi. 139 The difficulty attending upon this descent is..they should be so differently removed from Hur, the common ancestor or proparent of them both.

?1708 J. Sprint Bride-womans Counseller 12 The Messias being promised to come of the Race of the Jews, every teeming Woman has the hopes of being the Parent or proparent at least of him.

1783 H. Bright Praxis 59 My Fathers and Mothers in a religious, spiritual and godly Sense, or Proparents, who covenanted for me at the Baptismal Font.

1857 P. Cummings Dict. Congregational Usages & Princ. 32 He maintains that it [sc. baptism] can only be on account of the next parent or pro-parent, otherwise it may be extended even to Turks and infidels.

1989 E. N. Goody in M. W. Coy Apprenticeship ii. xiii. 240 The pro-parent receives work and respect from his new child, and authority over him.

1993 R. Thandabantu Nhlapo in J. Eekelaar & P. Šarčević Parenthood in Mod. Soc. i. iii. 48 All three categories of actor, (child, parent and pro-parent) are linked in a meaningful way.