LIST 12 - BAPTISMS - ST MARYS SYDNEY
The first church to be established in the colony for a
denomination other than the Church of England was Roman Catholic St
Marys at Sydney. Between 1819 and 1820 the details of 64 baptisms
recorded in St Mary's church register. Of this number four baptisms
refer to children born prior to 1811.
The information recorded and presented for each child is exactly as
described for St Phillips in List 3. Howver an additional field
for St Marys is the place of birth.
The list is presented in chronological order by date of baptism then
alphabetically by father's surname.
With regard to the fathers, identities of 86% have been found. The
names of six fathers were not recorded and the arrival details
of a further 23 remain unknown.
With regard to the mothers, identities of 77% have been found. The
names of four mothers were not recorded and the arrival details
of a further 43 remain unknown.
One hundred and forty three baptisms took place after 1820 when older
children came to baptism, the latest being John Pearce in 1832 at
the age of seventeen.
There were 25 duplicate entries on the register during the period
under study (and Sarah Ryan had a triplicate entry!) reducing the
total of individual baptisms to 182. Nearly all were previously
baptized at Anglican churches, thus bearing witness to the early
sectarian divide in the colony (which existed well into the latter
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.
The Rev. John Joseph Terry arrived on board the "Janus" on the 3rd
May 1820. He performed his first baptism twelve days later on the 15th
instant upon John Harper. However there are four baptisms
performed in late September and October 1819 which may have been
performed on board "Janus" before it left Cork in Ireland, although
no evidence for these families reaching the colony has been found,
which suggests that they may have been residents of Cork.
As well there are 23 baptisms recorded at the front of the register
performed in January and February 1819 for people living in Cork if
the names of the streets where they lived are any guide.
Regretfully Rev Terry did not record the date of birth of his
baptisms until 1826 making it difficult to determine who were and who
were not colonial born. Obviously all baptisms for the year 1820 are
included but only those after that date where the year of birth can
be calculated from other sources are included. In the same year
he also started to record the occupation of the father (in some
entries only regretfully).
Because in the early years there was no church building as such where
the Rev Terry could base himself, most of his pastoral work was done
moving from settlement to settlement. This is why a place of abode
column has been included with this church. In order to accommodate
this important information the ship of arrival data of the parents
has been removed to make room (this information is available in List
1 in anycase).
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SMS" 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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