BAPTISMS - ST PETERS EAST MAITLAND
There were 605 baptisms performed at St Peters East Maitland during the
decade, although 58 refer to children born before 1831, plus 22 performed
after 1840 for children born between the years 1831 and 1840. On average
there were five baptisms performed each month over the decade.
The information recorded for each baptism includes:
date of baptism
date of birth
child's Christian name
father's family name
father's Christian name
father's year & ship of arrival in the colony
father's status upon arrival in the colony
mother's maiden name
mother's Christian name
mother's year & ship of arrival in the colony
mother's status upon arrival in the colony
parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth
parents' marital status at the time of the child's birth
parents' year & country/church of marriage where applicable
child's place of birth
father's quality or profession
officiating minister
reference number
Father's year & ship of arrival in the colony, father's status upon arrival in the colony,
mother's year & ship of arrival in the colony, mother's status upon arrival in the colony,
parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth, parents' marital status
at the time of the child's birth, parents' year & country/church of marriage
where applicable are all value added details resulting from extensive personal
research, information which makes this work so valuable for family historians.
In the church register the mother's maiden name is only recorded when the birth
is illegitimate, but again through personal research the maiden name of many of the
married women has been discovered as well.
The list is presented in chronological order by date of baptism then by reference
number. The records in the register are not always in strict chronological order
but this has been corrected in this work.
The Rev.Charles Wilton was appointed to the parish in July 1831 (Archdeacon William
Broughton performing 11 baptisms and Rev.Richard Hill performing 9 before his arrival)
and he stayed until 1834. The Rev. George Rusden arrived in September 1834 and
administered the parish until the end of the decade (in fact he reamained until his
death in 1859). He was also the first minister to the parishes at Hexham and Raymond
Terrace. The Reverends Thomas Sharpe, Charles Spencer and William Stack also
performed occasional baptisms during the decade. The parish catechist Lt.John Wood RN
also performed two baptisms.
It is unusual to note that the Presbyterian minister John Garvan baptised two of his
own children at this Anglican parish.
With regard to the fathers only 70% have been identified.
Forty six were colonial born plus 13 were childhood arrivals, combined making up
9% of the total; 236 were convicts or former convicts (36%), 124 arrived free in the
colony (20%) and 32 were in the military (5%).
With regard to the mothers only 67% have been identified.
Ninety eight were colonial born plus 29 were childhood arrivals, combined making up
20% of the total; 162 were convicts or former convicts (24%), 148 arrived free in the
colony (23%) and there was one aboriginal mother.
Assuming listing the mother's surname indicates she was not married to
the child's father, only forty one (6%) of the births were illegitimate.
Notice the marked difference in demographics for this Hunter Valley parish, settled in the
1830's, compared to the Hawkesbury River parishes which were settled several decades
earlier. The proportion of free arrivals is much greater, as are the number of convicts
and former convicts, with a corresponding reduction in the proportion of colonial born.
It is obvious that the colony was rapidly loosing its convict foundation character.
Undoubtedly the vast majority of the unidentified were free arrivals.
There were twenty one baptisms 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 births.
These are identified with the percent sign (%).
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry in the
original source document. The numbering system continued from the previous
decade at 0017 and run to 0513 by the end of 1838. The numbers were re-initialized in
1839 to B001 and run to B107 by the end of the decade. (Number B032 was duplicated and
B079 was omitted.
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SPEM" on Lists 1 & 2. To
locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name would
be made on List 1 or 2 from which the date of baptism would be retrieved, secondly
using the appropriate date, the baptism would be located on this list
and finally an alphabetical search on the name would be made on the baptismal
date if there should be more than one entry for that date.
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