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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