MARRIAGES - ST ANDREWS KIRK SYDNEY

 
 
The Rev. John McGarvie split from the Rev. Lang in 1832 to form a separate 
second Presbyterian parish in Sydney which in time became known as St Andrews 
Kirk Sydney. The first marriage was conducted on the 15th November 1832 and 
by the end of the decade 754 marriages had been performed at St Andrews. On 
average just over six marriages every month.
 
The information recorded for each marriage is as follows:
 date
  groom 
 family name
 Christian name
 year and ship of arrival
 civil status at time of marriage
 age at marriage
 parish
  occupation
 bride 
 family name
 Christian name
 year and ship of arrival
 civil status at time of marriage
 age at marriage
  parish
 consent given by
 officiating minister
 reference number
 
The marriages are listed in chronological order.
 
Post 1826 all parishes (including the Presbyterian ones) were required to 
record all marriages on a standardized printed form, which contained the 
following information: register entry number, family name and Christian name 
of both bride and groom, residant parish of the bride and groom, date of marriage, 
who gave consent to the marriage and the officiating minister. Information 
recorded on the register but not included here includes the names of the 
witnesses to the marriage (Interested readers are urged to consult the original 
register for this information).
 
It should be pointed out that 'year and ship of arrival', 'civil status at time 
of marriage' and 'age at marriage' for both bride and groom are all "value added" 
additions researched by this work to complement the church register. As 
explained above the age at marriage is a derived figure.
 
Regrettably Rev McGarvie followed the other Presbyterian chaplains with 
regard to 'consent given by' details where every entry was recorded as 'those 
concerned' which could mean anybody; the Governor,  Parents, Guardians, Friends, 
Parties etc so the practice pursured throughout this work is to assume that 
every marriage involving a serving convict would require the consent of the 
governor. On the other hand Rev McGarvie did record the occupation of the 
grooms in the majority of cases.
 
The Rev.John McGarvie ministered to St Andrews for his whole life until his 
death in 1853. He was certainly very hard working performing 123 marriages 
in 1840 (the highest ever) and on some days performing as many of five marriages. 
His parish rapidly overtook Rev.Langs parish in popularity.
 
Of the grooms, 233 (31%) have been identified and for the brides 326 (43%). 
The consent of the Governor was calculated as being required in 142 cases 
(19%). These percentages are much lower than for the Anglican Parishes, were 
there less convicts or ex-convict attracted to the Presbyterian church ?
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the entry in the original parish 
register. The parish numbering sequence started from 0001 but in 1834 was 
re-initialized to B001, then again re-initialized in 1835 but to C139. The 
number C262 was omitted, numbers C263, C264 & C265 were all duplicates of 
C259, C260 & C261 and numbers C285,C286,C409,C410 were left blank. Strangely 
on the 5th November 1838 were was another re-initialization to D001 with 
numbers D012-D016, being omitted at the commencement of 1839, D146 was 
duplicated and D180, D243 were also omitted concluding at D262 by the end 
of 1840.
 
On a couple of occasions the register deviates from a strict chronological 
sequencing but this is been adjusted in this work.
 
There were five marriages in the State Archives Pioneer Series file which 
has no entry on this parish register. It is very likely that it results from 
a typographical error and relates to a post 1840 marriage.
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name 
would be made on Lists 3 or 4 using code "SAKS" from which the date of marriage 
would be retrieved, secondly using the appropriate date, the marriage would 
then be located on this list.

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