MARRIAGES - ST PHILLIPS SYDNEY

 
 
During  this  decade  there were 805 marriages  performed  at  St Phillips,  233  
more than the previous decade,  the  parish  (the oldest  in the colony) continuing 
to be the busiest and  Reverend Cowper  its  hardest  working chaplain.  On  average  
almost  two marriages every week.
 
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
               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.
 
At least in the case of the brides, by noting the information  in the  "with  
the  consent  of"  field,  "the  governor/master"  or "parents/father/guardians"  
at least indicates if she  was  free, convict or colonial born.
 
The   Rev.  Cowper  also  meticulously  routinely  recorded   the occupation  
of  the groom (one of only two  ministers  to  record this) and the marital status 
of the parties  (batchelor/spinster, widow/widower).
 
Looking at the occupation data for the parish it is apparent that very few of 
the grooms fell into the 'unskilled' categories, they certainly were not at the 
bottom of the social strata of colonial society with only 18 grooms giving their 
occupation as 'labourer' and only 11 as 'servant'.
 
Unfortunately  from  1826 the records copied onto  microfilm  are only  
transcripts  of the original register which have  not  been microfilmed.  Like 
all transcription processes it  leaves  itself open  to error. It is also possible 
that the originals  may  have held more information. 
 
With regard to the grooms 375 (47%) have been identified and  the brides  419  
(52%)  have  been identified.  The  consent  of  the Governor was required in 
284 cases (35%). This low percentage  of convict marriages (one of the lowest 
in the colony) reflects  the high social standing of the parish.
 
The  Rev William Cowper continued his long chaplaincy during  the decade and 
was one of the hardest working chaplains, for instance in 1837 he performed 107 
marriages (two per week). Of interest is the  fact  that  he  himself was married 
in  his  own  church  by the Rev.Samuel Marsden in 1836.
 
The  Rev  Cowper  was only rarely assisted  by  other  chaplains, although  it  
must  be  noted  that  Archdeacon  (later   Bishop) Broughton occasionally married 
more prominent personages.
 
The Reference Number would direct the reader to the entry in  the original  parish 
register. In this decade the numbers start  from K265  (jumping from J111 at 
the end of 1830) and run to  K554  by the  end  of  1834,  then initialized to 
L001  in  1835  and  re-initialized in 1839 to M001 (the numbers M062 to M065 
are  either missing or skippe over) reaching to M166 by the end of the decade.
 
There  were five 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 "SPS"  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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