MARRIAGES - ST JOHNS PARRAMATTA
During this decade there were 616 marriages performed at St Johns, seventy
four more than the previous decade. On average a little over one marriage every
week.
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 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 numberThe 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).
The Rev. Marsden was meticulous in also recording the civil status, ship
of arrival and age of the parties (one of the few ministers to record these
details).
At least in the case of the brides, by noting the information in the "with
the consent of" field, for example "the governor/master" or
"parents/father/guardians" at least indicates if she was a convict or came free
or colonial born.
Disppointingly in 1837 Rev Bobart ceased to record the "with the consent of"
field, however for the purposes of this work, if either or both parties were
serving convicts it is assumed they needed the Governors consent.With regard to the grooms 489 (80%) have been identified and the brides 500
(82%) have been identified. The consent of the Governor was required in
369 cases (60%).
The Rev Marsden continued his chaplancy from the previous decade until his
death on the 12th May 1838, he performed his last marriage on the 1st
January 1838. The Rev Henry Bobart was appointed his curate in 1837, he
took over the chaplancy upon Marsdens death and in June 1838 he proudly signed
himself for the first time "minister of St Johns parish".The chaplains and ministers assisting the Rev Samuel Marsden in his parish each year included:
1831: Charles Dickinson, William Cowper, Charles Wilton
1832: Charles Dickinson, Robert Forest, Thomas Hassall, John Vincent, 1833: Charles Dickinson, Archdeacon William G Broughton
1834: Robert Forest
1835: Henry Bobart, Charles Dickinson, Robert Forest, Thomas Hassall, Robert Maunsell
1836: Charles Dickinson, Robert Forest, Richard Taylor, Frederick Wilkinson
1837: Henry Bobart, Bishop William G Brougton, Charles Dickinson, Robert Forest, Thomas Hassall
1838: Thomas Hassall, John Vincent, Charles Wilton
The chaplains and ministers assisting the Rev Henry Bobart in his parish each year included:
1838: Charles Dickinson, Robert Forest 1839: William Clarke, Robert Forest, Thomas Hassall, John Troughton, George Woodd
1840: William Clarke, John Troughton
In 1831 Rev.William Cowper married his own son at St Johns. In 1833 Archdeacon
William Grant Broughton married Governor Bourke's daughter to the colonial
secretary at St Johns.
The Reference Number would direct the reader to the entry in the original parish
register. In this decade the numbers start from G270 (jumping from F057 at
the end of 1830) and run to G504 by the end of 1834, then initialized
to H001 in 1835 and initialized again in 1839 to J001 (J004 was duplicated),
running to J155 by the end of the decade.
There were 28 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 "SJP" from which the date of marriage would be retrieved, secondly using the appropriate date, the marriage would
then be located on this list.
Proceed to Church Register
Return to 1831-1840
Return to Home Page
This work is copyright. Apart from any fair
dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without
written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.