LIST 13 - BAPTISMS - ST MARYS HOBART

 
 
The  eleventh  church  and second Roman  Catholic  parish  to  be 
established  in  the colony was St Marys at  Hobart  Van  Diemens Land.  
Even  though the first baptism was not  performed  in  the church  until  
the 16th April 1821, for reasons  explained  below the details of 24 
baptisms are recorded in St Marys register  for 1820. 
 
The information recorded and presented for each child is  exactly as 
described for St Phillips in List 3.
 
The  list is presented in chronological order by date of  baptism then 
alphabetically by father's surname. 
 
With  regard to the fathers, identities of 68% have  been  found. The 
arrival details of 23 of the fathers remain unknown.
 
With  regard  to the mothers, identities of only  48%  have  been found. 
The arrival details of 37 of the mothers remain unknown.
 
Fifty baptisms took place after 1820 when older children came  to 
baptism,  the  latest being George Moore in 1827 at  the  age  of twenty.
 
There  were  nine duplicate entries on the  register  during  the period  
under study reducing the total of individual baptisms  to 65. All nine 
were previously baptized at Anglican churches,  thus bearing  witness  
to  the early sectarian divide  in  the  colony (which  existed  well  
into  the latter  part  of  the  twentieth century).
 
Where the father's surname has a second name separated by a slash '/', 
the surname after the slash is how the name was spelt in the original 
document or if second name is substantially different it refers to 
an alias. Where the mother's surname has a second  name separated by 
a slash, the surname after the slash is her  married name  at the time 
of the recording being made if she was  married more than once. 
 
The  reference  number would direct the reader  to  the  relevant entry 
in the original source document.
 
It  should  be noted that this list  contains  considerably  more 
information  than will be found in the original church  register, being 
the result of decades of research,  principally  associated with  the  
Pioneer Register Project.
 
Not infrequently genealogists are confronted with odd  situations in  
the  pursuit of their passion and the case  of  the  Reverend Conolly 
and his baptismal register is one such example.
 
The Rev. Philip Conolly along with the Rev. John Therry were  the first   
officially  sanctioned  Roman  Catholic  priests  to   be  appointed 
to the colony of New South Wales. They sailed  together in the 'Janus' 
reaching Sydney on the 3rd May 1820. Whilst Therry was  allocated to 
New South Wales, Conolly was destined  for  Van Diemens  Land but 
Governor Macquarie detained him in  the  senior colony for a year.
 
Four weeks after his arrival Conolly performed his first  baptism on 
the 31st May. He continued to baptise children until Macquarie finally 
released him to his duty in Hobart Town. He performed his last  baptism 
in Sydney on the 23rd March 1821. According to  his entry  in the 
'Australian Dictionary of Biography', Conolly  left for  Hobart in 
April 1821 arriving on the 14th and upon  checking Cumpston's  
'Shipping Arrivals & Departures,  Sydney,  1788-1825' the  only ship 
to leave for that southern settlement around  this time  was  the brig 
'Active'. He performed his first  baptism  in Hobart two days later 
on the 16th April.
 
So far so good but it would appear that the Rev. Conolly took his 
register  with  him to Hobart Town resulting  in  the  intriguing 
situation of having several people born and baptised in New South 
Wales appearing in records in Van Diemens Land!
 
Adding  to  the  genealogical  challenge,  Conolly  recorded  his 
baptismal entries in Latin, transcribing all the Christian  names into  
that  ancient  language. Fortunately  most  can  be  easily retranslated  
into English although the correct transcription  of "Lamentis" 
remains a mystery.
 
One  final  twist  in the saga, the State  Archives  in  Tasmania 
assigned  a  consecutive running number to each entry  for  every birth  
in  the colony. The twenty four baptisms  from  New  South Wales  (but  
recorded as at Hobart) run from 893 to 1106  but  in assigning  the  
numbers they obviously transposed the  first  and second pages of 
Conolly's register. As a consequence numbers  893 to  904  refer  to 
baptisms on the  second  page occurring  after baptisms on the first 
page, numbered 905 to 916.
 
Those  few entries which have a date of birth recorded come  from 
analysis conducted for the Pioneer Register Project, the dates of 
birth  not being recorded in the original document. As  with  the case  
of  St Johns Launceston in 1811, all baptisms in  1820  are assumed  
to relate to births in 1820, but this of course may  not have been 
the case.
 
There was one baptism of a native child on the list.
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SMH" on  List 1.  
To  locate  an entry on this list;  firstly  an  alphabetical search 
on the name would be made on List 1 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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