MARRIAGES - ST JAMES PITT TOWN

 
 
During this decaded there were thirty-five marriages performed at St James, up 
fourteen on the previous decade, on average between just three and four per 
year.
 
No records were found for the year 1837. In that year St James Pitt Town 
was one of three churches along with St Johns Wilberforce & St Thomas 
Sackville Reach reporting no marriages: all churches which were in the charge 
of the Rev Henry Stiles, which tends to indicate that perhaps all the records 
from these churches have been misplaced or lost rather than no marriages 
actually being performed in that year (which seems unlikely). 
 
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 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.
 
With regard to the grooms 30 (86%) have been identified and the brides 32 (91%) 
have been identified. The consent of the Governor was required in 14 cases 
(40%).
 
The Reverend Matthew Devenish Meares continued as rector of this parish until 
end of 1836 who was apparently a very busy man sharing his time between St 
James Pitt Town, St Johns Wilberforce and St Thomas Sackville Reach. The Rev Henry Stiles 
was chaplain for the year 1837 (but no marriages were conducted that year). The Reverend John Espy Keane replaced him in 1838 for the rest of the decade.
 
The remarkable thing about the marriages at this church during this decade 
was that fourteen of the brides were colonial born and one other arrived free 
in the colony as a child and nine of the grooms were colonial born.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the entry in the original parish 
register. In this decade the numbers continued on from the previous decade at 
0022 and run to 0056.
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name 
would be made on Lists 3 or 4 using code "SJPT" 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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