MARRIAGES - ST MATTHEWS WINDSOR ROMAN CATHOLIC

 
 
The first Catholic parish established outside of St Marys Sydney was 
St Matthews Windsor in 1835. The first marriage was performed in the 
new parish on the 8th January 1835 by the Reverend  Father Christopher 
Vincent Dowling. Up until the end of 1840 there  were 53 marriages 
performed.
 
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.
 
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).
 
Disppointingly  none of the Catholic registers 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 
Governor's consent.
 
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.
 
Of  the grooms, 33 (62%) have been identified and for the  brides 31  
(59%). The consent of the Governor was required in  21  cases (38%).
 
Reverend  Father Dowling was replaced in 1836 by Reverend  Father James  
Vincent  Corcoran, who in turn was replaced  in  1839  the Reverend   
Father  John  Barry.  The  Reverend   Father   William Ullathorne  
performed  severel  marriages in  1835  and  Reverend Father James 
McEncroe performed one in 1837.
 
There were no marriages in 1838 and only one in 1839 which  would tend 
to indicate that perhaps these records have become lost.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the entry in  the 
original parish register. The numbers commenced from 1 and ran to 53 
by the end of the decade. 
 
There was one marriage in the State Archives Pioneer Series  file which  
has  no entry on this parish register. It is  very  likely that it 
results from a typographical error and relates to a  post 1840 
marriage.
 
To  locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical  search on 
the name would be made on Lists 3 or 4 using code "SMWR"  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.