LIST 38 - MARRIAGES - ST JAMES SYDNEY

 
 
The first marriage was performed at St James on the 27th February 1824 by the 
Rev Richard Hill. Up until the end of 1830 there were 335  marriages  performed  
at  St James.  On  average  about  one marriage 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
               bride 
                    family name
                    Christian name
                    year and ship of arrival
                    civil status at time of marriage
                    age at marriage
               comments
               officiating minister
               reference number
 
The marriages are listed in chronological order.
 
In  the original register the standard information recorded  was; date, family 
name and Christian name of both bride and groom  and the  officiating  minister. 
Information in the register  but  not included here includes; names of the 
witnesses to the marriage. 
 
Rev  Hill proved to be a genealogists dream in that he  routinely recorded the 
age and civil status of the couple as well as  their ship  of  arrival  in  all  
except  those  who  came  free.  More interestingly still he recorded the 
occupation of the groom  (and one  bride). Speaking of occupations, it is 
interesting  to  note the  surprising  lack of unskilled labourers amongst  the  
grooms almost everyone had a trade or profession of one sort or another. Sadly 
there was not a single "cobbler", they were all shoemakers, perhaps  the  former  
really only  existed  in  children's  fairy tales. The consent of the governor 
was occasionally recorded  for serving convicts after 1826.
 
As explained above the age at marriage is a derived figure.
 
The  parish of St James was split off from St Phillips  in  1824. The  Reverend  
Richard Hill was the incumbent  minister  for  the whole  of this decade. The 
Rev Samuel Marsden performed a  couple of  marriages in 1827 and 1828; the Rev 
Elijah Smith a couple  in 1828 and one in 1829; the Rev Thomas Hassall one in 
1828 and  one in 1829; the Rev William Cowper one in 1830; the Rev John Vincent 
a  couple  in  1830 and the Rev  William  Yates  performed  eight marriages in 
1830.
 
It  would seem that the more prominent members of  society  could even have the 
Archdeacon officiate at their nuptuals.  Archdeacon Scott married John Campbell 
and James Roe in August 1828,  George Edward Nicholas Weston to a daughter of 
Colonel Johnston  in  May 1829  and  Archibald  Clunes Innes in  October  1829.  
Archdeacon Broughton married Thomas Wood and John Jones in December 1829 and 
William  John  Dumaresq  to a daughter of  Alexander  MacLeay  in October 1830.
 
There  was  one  duplicate marriage, that  of  Hugh  Corrigan  to Elizabeth  Walker 
in August 1830, repeating the ceremony  at  All Saints   Sutton   Forest.  This  
was  the  only  instant   of   a Protestant/Protestant duplication for the decade.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the entry in  the original  parish 
register. In this instance the numbers run  from 0001  to 0055 up to the end 
of 1825. As with all the churches  in the  colony,  following Governor Brisbane's 
directive,  St  James received  a printed register in 1826 but the numbering 
system  of marriages  re-initialized to "162" instead of the usual  "1"  for 
some reason.
 
To  locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical  search on the name 
would be made on Lists 27 or 28 using code "SJS" 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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