MARRIAGES - ST JAMES SYDNEY

 
 
During this decade there were 749 marriages performed at St James. On average 
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 (only for 1831,1832,1833)
 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).
 
Rev Hill meticously recorded if either of the parties were widowers or 
widows. Unfortunately he ceased the practice of recording the ships of 
arrival, ages of the parties and the occupation of the groom at the end of 
1833. Thereafter the age at marriage is a derived figure and the ships of arrival 
have been sourced from other records.
 
A particular peculularity of St James is that very many of the parties where 
not from "this parish", frequently St Phillips, St Lawrence and St Andrews 
(even though it was not officially in existence at the time).
 
With regard to the grooms 334 (45%) have been identified and the brides 410 
(55%) have been identified. The consent of the Governor was required in 
217 cases (29%). This low percentage of convict marriages (one of the lowest 
in the colony) reflects the high social standing of the parish.
 
The Reverend Richard Hill continued his chaplaincy from the previous decade 
as the incumbent minister until his death on the 30th May 1836 (he actually 
died in the church vestry), he performed his last marriage on the 26th May 
1836. The Rev William Yates managed the parish in July and August until the Rev 
Robert Cartwright became the new resident chaplain in September. He in turn 
was replaced by the Rev George Woodd in 1838 before the Rev Robert Allwood 
commenced his long encumbacy in December 1839.
 
The chaplains and ministers assisting the Rev Richard Hill in his parish each 
year included:
 
1831: Archdeacon William G Broughton, John Vincent
1832: John Vincent
1833: Archdeacon William G Broughton, William Cowper, William Watson, Frederick 
Wilkinson, William Yate 
1835: Henry H Bobart, Robert Mansell
1836: Bishop William G Broughton, William Cowper, Charles Dickinson, William 
Yates 
 
The chaplains and ministers assisting the Rev Robert Cartwright in his parish 
each year included:
 
1837: Bishop William G Broughton, William Cowper, Thomas Reddall, Henry Wilkins, 
George Woodd
 
The chaplains and ministers assisting the Rev George Woodd in his parish each 
year included:
 
1838: Thomas Hassall, John Vincent, Charles P N Wilton
1839: John Vincent, Charles P N Wilton, Thomas Hassall, Frederick Wilkinson
 
The chaplains and ministers assisting the Rev Robert Allwood in his parish 
each year included:
 
1840: John Elder, James Edmonston, William W Simpson, George Turner, George 
Vidal, William H Walsh
 
The Reference Number would direct the reader to the entry in the original parish 
register. In this decade the numbers start from B282 (jumping from 0126 at the 
end of 1830) and run to B583 when most unusually in the middle of August 1835 
the numbers were re-initialized to C001 (the number C115 was duplicated) and 
ran to C278 by the end of 1838 then again re-initialized in 1839 to D001 
(the number D044 was duplicated) with a final re-initialization in 1840 
to E001 and ran to E109 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 "SJS" 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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