MARRIAGES - ST JAMES MELBOURNE; PORT PHILLIP DISTRICT

 
 
The  first  marriage was performed at St James Melbourne  on  the 30th May 1837 
by the Rev Naylor. Victoria did not sseparate  from New  South Wales as a separate 
colony until 1851 and  after  John Batman's treaty with the aboriginies of the 
Port Phillip District in  1835  settlers from Van Diemens Land started  to  cross  
Bass Strait and settle in the new lands when St James was still  under the  
Anglican Diocese of Sydney. Up until the end of  the  decade there were 160 
marriages performed at St James.
 
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
               bride 
                    family name
                    Christian name
                    year and ship of arrival
                    civil status at time of marriage
                    age at marriage
               officiating minister
               reference number
 
The marriages are listed in chronological order.
 
Post 1826 all parishes 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.
 
The  church  register does not record the parish of  the  parties (perhaps  it  
was  assumed they were all from  the  Port  Phillip District)  and  the 'consent 
given by' column was  not  completed except in a couple of cases.
 
Of  the  grooms,  only 7 (4%) have been identified  and  for  the brides  only 
11 (7%). Not being from New South Wales it was  very difficult to trace the people 
in the region at the time. For  the few serving convicts who have been identified 
it is assumed  that the Governor gave consent for the marriage.
 
The Rev.I Bangly Naylor only performed the one marriage in  1837, he  was  followed 
by the Rev.John Couch Grylls in 1838  and  1839 whilst  three chaplains ministered 
in 1840;  Rev.James  Yelverton Wilson  then  Rev.Rochfort  Burrow Grange  finally  
the  Rev.Adam Compton Thomson.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the entry in  the original parish 
register. The numbers commenced from 1 and ran to 160 by the end of the decade. 
 
There  were four marriages in the State Archives  Pioneer  Series file  which  
have  no entry on this parish register. It  is  very likely  that most of these 
result from typographical  errors  and relate to post 1840 marriages.
 
To  locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical  search on  the name 
would be made on Lists 3 or 4 using code "SJ-M" 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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