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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