MARRIAGES - ST JOHNS WILBERFORCE

 
 
During this decade 38 marriages were performed at St John's, on average about 
four per year.
 
No records were found for the years 1837 & 1838. In the year 1837 St Johns 
Wilberforce was one of three churches along  with St Thomas Sackville Reach 
& St James Pitt Town, 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). 
No marriages in 1838 is a genuine statement as the register itself lists "nil 
marriages". 
 
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.
 
It is interesting to note that nearly half the marriages were between the 
colonial born.
 
The Reverend Matthew Devenish Meares continued as rector of this parish until 
October 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. Althou the 
Reverend Frederick Wilkinson performed two marriages October 1836. The Reverend 
Henry Stiles was chaplain in 1837 before being replaced in 1838 by The Reverend 
John Espy Keane for the remainder of the decade. There were no marriages conducted 
in 1837 nor 1838. 
 
With regard to the grooms 36 (95%) have been identified and the brides 38 (100%) 
have been identified. The consent of the Governor was required in 16 cases 
(42%).
 
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 
0030 and run to 0056 by the end of 1836. In 1839 the numbers were initialized 
to B001 and run to B011 by the end of the decade.
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name 
would be made on Lists 3 or 4 using code "SJW" 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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