LIST 27 - MARRIAGES - GROOMS NAME ORDER

 
 
There were 3,130 marriages recorded during this decade, which is around one 
thousand more than in the previous decade.
 
The information recorded for each marriage is as follows:
 date
  church
 groom 
 family name
 Christian name
 year and ship of arrival
 civil status at time of marriage
 age at marriage
 bride 
  family name
 Christian name
 year and ship of arrival
 civil status at time of marriage
 age at marriage
 
The marriages are listed in alphabetical order on the name of the groom.
 
A slash (/) after the family name indicates that the groom was a widower or 
the bride was widow. In the case of brides, her maiden name if known, preceeds 
the slash and her previous married name succeeds the slash.
 
The ship of arrival of 327 (10%) grooms has not been identified, 126 referring 
to 1829 and 1830 marriages, indicating the scarcity of cross reference material 
after 1828, as well as 20 who claim to be colonial born but no collaborating 
birth details have been found.
 
Sometimes the marriage register records a ship of arrival but the name cannot 
be located on the relevant shipping indent. These tend to be indicated by the 
absence of a year of arrival.
 
With regard to the grooms, the arrival status of 91.5% have been found. There 
were 2,002 convicts or former convicts (48%), 59 were military (2%), 407 
came free (13%) and 379 were colonial born (12%).
 
There were 22 grooms who are described in the marriage register as a "free 
man". Unfortunately it is not certain whether this means; came free, free by 
servitude or born free.
 
There were twenty eight duplicate entries, these are marked with an asterix 
(*) and two triplicate entries (**)! The majority were couples being remarried 
in the Catholic Church after a Protestant ceremony.
 
Many parish registers only recorded the date of the marriage, the name of the 
groom, the name of the bride, the names of the witnesses and the name of 
the officiating minister. All other information for the marriage has been value 
added either from the shipping indents or the early musters. A hint of the civil 
status of the parties is revealed if the marriage was performed "with the 
consent of the Governor" which would indicate that at least one of the parties 
to the marriage was a serving convict or "with consent of parents" which would 
indicate that, usually the bride, was a minor and probably colonial born.
 
Whilst some parish registers began to record the age of the bride and groom, 
in most instances this is a computed figure from ages recorded on shipping 
indents, death details, census & muster details. Therefore they must be 
treated as an estimate at best. Only for the colonial born is it calculated 
from a known date of birth. 
 
The age of 85% of the grooms has been calculated, ranging from three colonial 
born lads of 17 years; Walter Butler, Michael Sullivan & Phillip Thornley 
to Middleton Knight aged 80 and Thomas Spencer, who claimed to be 82 years 
old. 
 
The churches where the marriages took are listed in Table 27.1 below. The 
Church of England conducted 79% of the marriages, the Church of Rome 16% 
and the Church of Scotland 5%. There are ten entries where no church is recorded. 
These entries come from the Pioneer Register project. Either the descendants 
have information not recorded in official records or some "historical 
revisionism" has taken place in an attempt to hide illegitimate births.
 
In 1826 Governor Brisbane issued a directive that all parishes of all 
denominations in the colony must submit a return at the end of each calendar 
year listing all births, deaths and marriages conducted during the previous 
twelve months. In true bureaucratic fashion he standardized the information 
which was to be furnished for each birth, death and marriage and supplied 
pre-printed forms on which to complete the information.
 
In the case of marriages, regrettably for future genealogists and family 
historians most if not all genealogical information was excluded, information 
such as ship of arrival, age and civil status at the time of the marriage, 
which some of the chaplains were recording up till this time.
 
As might be expected these pre-printed forms became the standard in almost 
every parish as to what was recorded. What's more the only records microfilmed 
in the National Library after 1825 were the government returns not the original 
registers from which the information was gleaned.
 
Being copies, they are subject to all the errors that transcription 
involves but not having the originals with which to compare the information makes 
identifying any errors difficult.
 
Nearly all the churches recommenced their reference numbering system in 1826 
to start at the number "1".
 
Almost as if to compensate for the sudden loss of genealogical information, 
to the great delight of researchers, Joan Reese & Norah Tuck have recorded, 
indexed, published (and typed!) the Convict Permission to Marry registers. 
These commence in 1826 and are of immeasurable assistance in identifying 
marriage participants with details of ship of arrival, age and civil status 
when the actual church records are so barren of such details. The registers 
are available in microfiche form at the National Library in Canberra. They 
have been of immense assistance with the Church of Rome marriages in 
particular.
 
Governor Darling upon his arrival forbade any two serving convicts from 
marrying, but as can be seen from these lists, this restriction was observed 
more in the breach.
 
 
 Table 27.1. - Original Sources
 
 SPS 572 18.3%
 SJP 546 17.3%
  SMS 523 16.1%
 SJS 335 10.7%
 SMW 202 6.5%
 SKS 161 5.1% 
 SLL 159 5.1%
 CCN 120 3.8%
 SPC 119 3.8%
 CCC 114 3.6%
 SPR 58 1.9%
 HTK 43 1.4% 
 SPCO 38 1.2%
  STSR 34 1.1%
 SJW 29 below 1.0%
 SJPT 21 below 1.0%
 ASSF 17 below 1.0%
 STPM 12 below 1.0%
 SAKP 9 below 1.0%
 SPEM 7 below 1.0%
 EKPH 7 below 1.0%
 Other 10 below 1.0%
 
 
The abbreviations used in this volume are explained below.
 
  ASSF : All Saints Sutton Forrest 
 CCC : Christ Church Castlereagh 
 CCN : Christ Church Newcastle 
 EKPH : Ebenezer Kirk Portland Head 
  HTK : Holy Trinity Kelso 
 SAKP : St Annes Kissing Point 
 SDH : St Davids Hobart
 SJL : St Johns Launceston
 SJP : St Johns Parramatta 
 SJPT : St James Pitt Town 
 SJS : St James Sydney 
 SJW : St Johns Wilberforce 
 SKS : Scots Kirk Sydney
  SLL : St Lukes Liverpool 
 SMS : Catholic St Marys Sydney 
 SMW : St Matthews Windsor 
 SPC : St Peters Campbelltown 
  SPCO : St Pauls Cobbitty 
 SPEM : St Peters East Maitland
 SPR : St Peters Richmond 
 SPS : St Phillips Sydney 
 SSG  : St Saviours Goulburn
 STPM : St Thomas Port Macquarie 
 STSR : St Thomas Sackville Reach

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