LIST 12 - MARRIAGES

 
 
These two sub-lists record the 'marriages' of 915 of the First Generation, 
separated into females and males. For the purposes of this list 'marriage' 
refers to both those with the blessing of the Church and those in anticipation 
of it.
 
The information presented for each entry includes: 
 
 family name of bride/groom
 Christian name of bride/groom 
 year of birth
 parents' names 
 parents' civil status at the time of bride/groom's birth
 parents' marital status at the time of bride/groom's birth
 date of marriage
 place of marriage 
 age at marriage
  name of spouse
 civil status of the spouse at the time of marriage
 age of spouse
 age difference between bride and groom
 marriage number
 number of children resulting from the union. 
 
The list is in alphabetical order, firstly on surname secondly on Christian name 
then chronologically on date of marriage if there was more than one.
 
Of those whose marriage is recorded, as would be expected from the Church 
Chronology discussed in the Introduction, most took place at the earliest of 
the churches established in the colony; St Phillips Sydney , St Johns Parramatta, 
St Matthews Windsor and St Davids Hobart in Van Diemens Land.
 
The 'Age at Marriage' figure was calculated by subtracting the date of birth 
from the date of marriage. In those cases where there was a defacto marriage 
the figure was calculated by subtracting the date of birth of the parent 
from the date of birth of the first child of the union minus one.
 
The 'Age Difference between Bride and Groom' figure was calculated 
by subtracting the date of birth of the bride from the date of birth of the 
groom. In most cases this is a positive number and a surprisingly large 
positive number by modern standards. To be able to derive this figure, the 
year of birth of both bride and groom needed to be known.
 
Only 'marriages' after the first are numbered. In modern times, divorce is 
the scourge that results in multiple marriages, whereas for the First 
Generation it was the death of a spouse that lead to multiple marriages.
 
The information about the 'Number of Children' from each union comes 
principally from 'The Pioneer Register' project which in turn derives from 
the descendants of these unions who would have obtained the information from 
death certificates. Where there was more than one marriage, the number of 
children has been totalled for all marriages. If anything the figures presented 
here would have to be the absolute minimum of children for each union 
because no doubt many births have been overlooked or never recorded. 
Undoubtedly those unions with only one or two children may not have left 
descendants and their issue may have been missed altogether. On the other 
hand those unions with the most children would have of necessity had the most 
descendants and information on them is more likely to have survived. 
 
 
FEMALES
 
This sub-list records the marriage details of 553 First Generation 
women. Multiple marriages were entered into by 171 women, thus the list 
presents in total 724 unions of First Generation women. 
 
 
Date of Marriage
The earliest of the First Generation to marry was Ann Harmswoth on 19th January 
1800, followed by Ann Eades, Ann Griffin, Jane Jones and Eleanor Flemming in 
the same year. All these girls were childhood arrivals and as a consequence were 
slightly older than their colonial born sisters. The first of the colonial 
born to marry was Laetitia Sever on the 8th November 1804.
 
Sophia Carmen married for the first time in 1859 and Mary Dowling in 1849 but 
both these women had been living with their partners for many years before 
marriage. Elizabeth Marsden was probably the truly last of her generation to 
form a union when she married the Reverend Henry Bobart in 1837.
 
In about a fifth of the unions (110) no marriage date has been recorded, either 
because no marriage ever took place or the record has been lost or not found 
at this time. Three marriages are reputed to have taken place in England for 
which no date has been found and Hannah Edge and Mary Goodwin are reputed to 
have been married on Norfolk Island but again the record has not been located.
 
 
Place of Marriage
The table below lists the number of first marriages which took place at each 
of the early churches.
 
 Table 12.1. - Church of First Marriage
 
 Church Number
 -----------------------------------------
 St Phillips Sydney 140
 St Johns Parramatta 105
 St Matthews Windsor 76
 Christ Church Castlereagh  11
 St Peters Richmond 7
 St Lukes Liverpool 4
 St James Sydney 3
 St Johns Wilberforce 2
 St Peters Campbelltown  2 
 All Saints Sutton Forest 1
 St Thomas Port Macquarie 1
 Scots Kirk Sydney 4
 St Marys Sydney (RC) 2
 
 Norfolk Island 6
 
 St Davids Hobart VDL 93
 St Johns Launceston VDL 12
 St Matthews New Norfolk 3
 
All of these churches apart from Scots Kirk Sydney and St Marys Sydney are 
Anglican churches. The churches of second and subsequent marriages, coming 
later in the history of the colony, are much more varied and more widely spread 
about the expanding colony.
 
In four cases whilst the year of marriage is known the church is not:
 
 Elizabeth Cavanagh 1812
 Mary Cross 1809
 Mary Egan 1817
 Martha Farrell 1817
 
Seven women are known to have married overseas, and in all probability 
there were a lot more. Elizabeth Peck somewhat romantically pursued her 
Army Captain lover when his regiment was recalled from the colony and married 
him in India:
 
  England : Ann Maria Ball
 Elizabeth Dell
 Emily Kemp
 Anna Maria King
 Elizabeth King
 Scotland: Elizabeth McKellar
 India: Elizabeth Peck
 
Mary Macarthur married at 'Elizabeth Farm' Parramatta. Susannah Williams 
married at an unspecified church in Sydney and Sophia Carmen at an unspecified 
church in Parramatta. Mary Kimberley married in an unspecified church at 
Cottage Green Hobart. 
 
 
Age at Marriage
The following table lists the age of marriage for the First Generation 
women. These figures pertain only to their first marriage, ages of subsequent 
marriages would of course be greater.
 
 Table 12.2. - Age at First Marriage
 
 Age Number Age Number Age Number 
 ----------- ----------- ----------- 
 11 1 21 39 31 2  
 12 2 22 11 32 1 
 13 9 23 19 33 1 
 14 28 24 10 34 1 
 15 44 25 9 35 3 
 16 83 26  11 36 0 
 17 65 27 6 37 2 
 18 61 28 7 38 3 
 19 46 29 4 39 0 
 20 39 30 3 40 1 
 
As can be seen from the above table, the First Generation girls were married 
young, sixteen being the most common age to marry and by twenty-one, of 
the girls who would marry, the vast majority were married. It has to be 
remembered that to become a 'wife & mother' was the expected role in society 
for women at this time and no doubt many were anxious to get on with it!
 
Unfortunately in 77 cases the age of marriage cannot be determined, 
either because the year of birth of the  bride is unknown (10) or because 
the marriage date is unknown (67).
 
It is said that "the past is a different country, they do things differently 
there" and no truer example can be found than to look at society's attitude to 
matters sexual as they appertain to when a young woman is considered eligible 
for 'marriage', that age was considerably younger in the late eighteenth century 
than it is today. The particular circumstances of the infant colony, in that 
there was a vast over preponderance of men, needs to be taken into 
consideration when considering these matters as well. Young girls were 
obviously eagerly sought as partners at ages that even by the standards of 
libertine Georgian England would be considered as young. Then again, it 
must be remembered New South Wales was a 'colony of criminals' so bad behaviour 
of all types was only to be expected.
 
Sarah Wheeler is recorded as having a child at the age of eight years, but 
this is obviously an error; Ann Haywood and Jane Kennedy are likewise recorded 
as having children at the ages of 11 and 13 respectively, but again these 
would have to be errors in the recording of dates. 
 
Elizabeth Baker and Elizabeth Munday both had children at the age of 14 years, 
however their ages are not certain and whilst the mothers have baptisms 
recorded in 1789 and 1788 respectively, their actual dates of birth were not 
recorded and it is only an assumption that they were baptized the same year 
as their births.
 
Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Nichols, Mary Rowe and Elizabeth Waterson all 
had children at the age of 15 years, only Susannah Martin has an accurately 
recorded birth date, the others once again had dates of birth that are not 
well documented. What's more, Elizabeth Nichols and Elizabeth Waterson were 
born on Norfolk Island where there is a definite uncertainty about the accuracy 
of information. 
 
Mary Dowling married for the first time at the age of 61 but she had been living 
with Thomas King for many years before that. Harriet Sutton married John Kerr 
for the first time at the age of 45. Elizabeth Davis married for the second 
time to Andrew Mahon at the age of 76 although they too had been living 
together before that.
 
 
Civil Status of the Groom at the Time of Marriage
Whom the First Generation women married proved to be one of the most interesting 
aspects of this analysis. This information once again comes principally from 
the Pioneer Register project. 
 
The table below lists the civil status of grooms at first marriage and 
the numbers and percentages of each category. Almost one half (46%) married 
men of convict background, 28% of whom were still serving their terms, whereas 
only 18% married their colonial born counterparts. Three marriages took place 
overseas to men who never emigrated. Regrettably the status of 52 (9%) of the 
grooms is unknown at this time.
 
 Table 12.3. - Civil Status of Groom at First Marriage
 
 Civil Status Number Percentage
 ----------------------------------------------
 BC - colonial born 99 18
 CF - came free 157 28
 GS - convict 156 28
 TL - ticket of leave 3 1
 CP - conditional pardon 7 1
 AP - absolute pardon 11 2
 FS - free by servitude 79  14
 NE - overseas 3 1
 -- - unknown 52 9
 
As seen in the table above the great surprise and indeed great mystery is 
why the colonial born women virtually ignored the colonial born men. It must 
have been very galling to the colonial lads that the lasses even preferred 
serving convicts over themselves.
 
Now this may be just a manifestation of the tendency for women to marry men 
older than themselves so, of necessity the First Generation of colonial 
born women would not have any colonial born men older than themselves to marry 
but even so the reasons for so few marriages to colonial born men would 
make a fascinating study in itself. Why was British "sterling" so preferred 
over local "currency" ? What was/is wrong with Australian men ?
 
The colonial born lads may well have held the moral high ground but then as 
now Sydney is a town where "money talks" and the dollar (holey in this case) 
apparently makes up for a multitude of "crims" so the colonial born lasses went 
for the lucre. What's changed one might well ask !
 
On the other hand, it could be that whilst the colonial born men, whatever other 
fine qualities they may have possessed fitting them to be excellent pioneers 
and settlers of an untamed land, due to the lack of educational opportunities 
in the early years of the colony when they were growing up, were perhaps 
perceived to be possibly nothing more than ignorant buffoons especially in 
comparison to their more 'sophisticated' old world rivals for the hearts of the 
local girls.
 
 
Age of Groom
The great ages of some of the grooms would come as a surprise to modern minds. 
Tables will be presented when discussing the male colonial born grooms to show 
their general spread of the ages. Of interest at this time is that Elizabeth 
Robley married the 62 year old Michael Massey Robinson when she was only 
14, Ann Sherberd married the 63 year old Reverend William Henry when she was 
only 16, and Laetitia Sever, who was the first of the colonial born to 
marry, married the 57 year old Roger Twyfield when she was just 16.
 
 
Age Difference between Bride and Groom
To be able to derive this figure, the year of birth of both the bride and 
groom needed to be known. Unfortunately in 139 cases (30%), one or the other 
or both of these dates is unknown. The table below lists the age difference 
distributions of the remaining 70% of 'marriages'.
 
 Table 12.4. - Age Difference at First Marriage
 
 Age Dif. No Age Dif. No Age Dif. No Age Dif. No Age Dif. No 
 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- 
-10 1 0 5 10 11 20 11 30 0 
 -9 0 1 21 11 12 21 11 31 0 
 -8 0 2 24 12 10 22 7 32 0 
 -7 2 3  21 13 15 23 6 33 1 
 -6 1 4 13 14 17 24 7 34 2 
 -5 4 5 27 15 9 25 10 35 0 
 -4 3 6 24 16 15 26  7 36 1 
 -3 3 7 24 17 10 27 4 37 0 
 -2 7 8 21 18 9 28 2 38 1 
 -1 10 9 11 19 12 29 4 39 1  
 --- --- --- --- --- 
 31 150 118 69 6
 
In modern times a figure of five years difference between spouses would be 
considered 'acceptable', stretching at most to say ten years. Things were 
very different however for our First Generation women; Charlotte Sutton 
was 40 years younger than her husband, Laetitia Sever 41 years, Elizabeth 
Ruse 42 years and Elizabeth Robley was 48 years younger than Michael 
Massey Robinson.
 
Looked at in terms of decades; 47% married a man one decade or less older, 
37% married a man two decades or less older, 22% marred a man three decades 
or less older and 2% marred a man four decades or less older, a situation very 
unusual in any modern Western culture.
 
But not all brides were younger than their grooms. There were 31 cases (10%) 
in which the bride was older, Elizabeth Grace was 14 years older than her 
colonial born groom.
 
Interestingly, for those women with second and subsequent marriages, 
the age difference profile changes markedly. Now 39% married men who were 
younger than themselves and only one woman, Mary Ann Martin, married a man 
more than two decades older then herself. Perhaps being widowed and 
inheriting their late husbands' assets, it was now they who were in a 
position to attract younger men, in many cases more than ten years younger. 
Elizabeth Robley, mentioned above as marrying a much older man, when married 
a second time she married a man 4 years younger then herself.
 
 
Number of Marriages
One quarter of the women were married two or more times. Second 'marriages' 
were entered into by 135 women, 25 had three 'marriages', 6 had four 
'marriages' and Sarah Burgess had five. 
 
 
Number of Children
The issue from all these 'marriages' is known for 443 of the First Generation 
women. For those women with more than one partner, the number of children 
has been totalled for all marriages.
 
The total number of children from these 'marriages' is 3,021 and average of 
6.8 ! Remember too that these figures represent the absolute minimum. 
 
The table below lists the number of issue of each union and the number of women 
who had this issue. The striking thing about this list is just how many children 
the average First Generation woman bore, which in turn stands as a testament 
to the good health and general robustness of these women as a generation. Nearly 
30% had ten or more children and less than 3% had no issue at all. Again it 
should be emphasized that these figures would have to be considered the 
absolute minimum number of children whom the First Generation women bore.
 
 Table 12.5. - Number of Children
 
 Issue Number Issue Number
 ---------------- ----------------
 0 15 9 28
 1 36 10 35
  2 28 11 33 
 3 28 12 21
 4 38 13 12
 5 38 14 17 
 6 37 15 2
 7  35 16 3
 8 42 22 1
 
Note the infertility rate of 3.4%.
 
Ann Lucas is reputed to have had 22 children to Charles Williams, although only 
14 have been documented. Ann Collins and Sarah Goodwin each had 15 children, 
Elizabeth Davis, Maria Grono and Maria Tucker each had 16 children and all 
these births have been documented.
 
Again it is a testament to the robust health of the First Generation 
women that so many of them were still having children well into their late 
forties and even fifties. Elizabeth Davis had her last children at the age 
of 59.
 
 
It should be pointed out that six First Generation women in the 1814 Muster, 
three in the 1822 Muster and six in the 1828 Census were recorded as married 
but who could not be further identified and whose marriages could not be located.
 
1814 Muster: Charlotte J Brown -- ---- 
 Elizabeth James O'Hara BC 1792 
 Mary John Monday BC 1790 
 Mary Thomas Algate -- ---- 
 Sarah James Brackenrigg CF 1758 
  Sarah Thomas Payten FS 1769 
 
1822 Muster: Lucy 1797 Dennis Bryant CP 1787 10 
 Mary 1798 - Percival -- ---- 
  Mary 1800 - Martin -- ---- 
 
1828 Census: Lucy 1797 Dennis Bryant CP 1787 10 
 Margaret 1798 - Percival -- ---- 
  Mary 1795 John Hopkins TL 1794 1
 Mary 1796 James Butler GS 1790 6
 Sarah 1799 William Watts FS 1798 (1)
 Sarah 1800 William Lees FS 1793 7
 
 
MALES
 
This  sub-list records the marriage details of 362 First Generation 
men. Multiple marriages were entered into by 61 men, thus the list presents 
in total 422 unions. Notice that this is 298 less than for the women.
 
 
Date of Marriage
The earliest of the First Generation men to marry was Thomas Rose on 24th May 
1800, who of course as a childhood arrival. It was seven years before the next 
two childhood arrivals were to marry in 1807; William Ikin and William Ternan. 
John Kelly was the first of the colonial born to marry in 1808, although 
his exact date of birth is unknown and he may have arrived as a very young 
child. Verified colonial born men - Daniel Standfield, Joseph Barrisford 
& George Wood, also all married in 1808, interestingly all in Hobart Van Diemens 
Land, after their transfer from Norfolk Island.
 
James Bellamy was the last of his generation to marry in 1871 but he was marrying 
for the second time. Last to marry for the first time was Edward Macarthur in 
1862.
 
In 44 cases the date of marriage is unknown, either because no marriage ever 
took place or the record has been lost or not found at this time. Two marriages 
are reputed to have taken place in England for which no date has been found 
and another two in Calcutta in India.
 
 
Place of Marriage
The table below lists the number of first marriages which took place at each 
of the early colonial churches.
 
 Table 12.6. - Church of First Marriage
 
 Church  Number
 -----------------------------------------
 St Phillips Sydney 66
 St Matthews Windsor 60
 St Johns Parramatta 43
 St Peters Richmond  12
 Christ Church Castlereagh 11
 St James Sydney 8
 St Lukes Liverpool 7
 St Johns Wilberforce 5
 St Peters Campbelltown 2 
 St Peters East Maitland 2
 Christ Church St Lawrence Sydney 1
 St Annes Kissing Point 1
 St James Pitt Town  1
 Scots Kirk Sydney 4
 St Marys Sydney (RC) 5
 
 St Davids Hobart VDL 53
 St Johns Launceston VDL 11
 St Matthews New Norfolk  2
 Independent Chapel Hobart VDL 1
 
All of these churches apart from Scots Kirk Sydney, St Marys Sydney and 
Independent Chapel Hobart are Anglican churches. The churches of second and 
subsequent marriages, coming later in  the history of the colony, are much 
more varied and more widely spread about the expanding colony.
 
There were nine marriages in New South Wales where a place is recorded but 
not a church and five similar entries for Van Diemens Land:
 
 Samuel Arndell MacDonald River 
 John Baxter Sydney 
 Isaac Cornwell Landsdown Liverpool 
 William Craft Richmond  
 Thomas Crump Sackville Reach 
 Paul Huon Campbelltown 
 John Edge Cooks River Sydney 
 Joseph Singleton 'Glendon' Hunter River 
 William Whittle Lake Larrs Bathurst 
 
 Richard Jordan Evandale VDL 
 James Hunt Lucas Heads of Macquarie Harbour 
 John Paul Hobart VDL 
 William Peck Longford VDL 
 William Stanfield Hobart VDL 
 
In four cases whilst the year of marriage is known the church is not:
 Edward Kenny 1820
 William Neale 1824
 James Trimby 1817
 John Tucker 1815
 
Interestingly the descendants of William Neale and James Trimby have given 
an exact date for their marriages but still the record cannot be found in any 
existing church registers.
 
Ten men are known to have married overseas, and in all probability 
there were a lot more:
 
 England : William Bowman
 William Gilbourne
 John Harris
 Phillip King
 Sydney King
  Duncan McKellar
 James Macarthur
 Scotland : Edward Macarthur
 D'Archy Wentworth
 Ireland : Joseph Holt
 
 
Age at Marriage
The following table lists the age of marriage for the First Generation 
men. These figures pertain only to their first marriage, ages of subsequent 
marriages would of course be greater.
 
 Table 12.7. - Age at First Marriage
 
  Age Number Age Number Age Number 
 ----------- ----------- ----------- 
 16 2 28 18 39 5
 17 4 29 11 40 1
 18 8 30 12 41  1
 19 23 31 11 42 3
 20 24 32 7 43 1
 21 43 33 5 44 1
 22 45 34 4 49 1
 23 27 35 5 50  1
 24 21 36 1 51 1
 25 19 37 2 55 2
 26 17 52 3 73 1
 27 13 38 3 
 
Unfortunately in 13 cases the age at marriage cannot be determined, 
either because the year of birth of the groom is unknown (5) or because the 
marriage date is unknown (8).
 
John Cunningham was the youngest 'man' to marry at the age of 16, William John, 
Daniel Johns & George Wood all married at 17. Thomas Turner fathered a 
child at the age of 16 as did John Munday at the age of 17. 
 
James Bellamy married for the second time at the age of 73 (and went on to 
father two children !). Edward Macarthur was the oldest of the First Generation 
to marry for the first time also at the age of 73. Isaac Shephard and William 
Whittle both married for the first time at 55 and James Rochester at 50 but 
he had been living with and having children with his wife since he was 24 
- he finally did the right thing and made of 'honest woman' of the mother of 
his ten children.
 
Some interesting differences emerge between the men and women in this table. 
Firstly for the First Generation men the most common age to marry was twenty-one 
and an half, a full five years later than for the girls. Secondly the men 
kept on marrying to a greater age, the last women to marry for the first 
time did so at the age of 40, whereas seven men married in their forties, four 
in their fifties, and one at 73.
 
 
Civil Status of the Wife at the Time of Marriage
The great and indeed surprising difference between the women and men of the 
First Generation is in their attitude to convicts as expressed in their marital 
preferences with the former warmly embracing and the latter positively 
abhorring the convicts.
 
As can be seen in the table below only 8% of men married a serving or 
former convict woman, whilst the figure for the  women was 46% almost six times 
as large - why would this have been so ? 
 
What's more as time went by the men were even less likely to marry a convict 
woman. Where the date of marriage is known; twelve took place between 1810 
- 1819, ten between 1820 - 1829, and only two thereafter, William Peck being 
the last to marry a convict woman in 1836.
 
Another point of interest regarding these convict marriages, of the 38 men 
who married women older than themselves, 12 were to convict women.
 
The table below lists the status of 'brides' at first marriage and the numbers 
and percentages of each category. The men overwhelmingly married their 
own kind - 68% marrying colonial born girls. Six marriages took place overseas 
to women who never emigrated. Regrettably the status of 22 (6%) of the brides 
is unknown at this time.
 
 Table 12.8. - Civil Status of Wife at First Marriage
 
 Civil Status Number Percentage
 ----------------------------------------------
 BC - colonial born 249 68 
 CF - came free 56 16 
 GS - convict 26 7 
 TL - ticket of leave 1 0 
 FS - free by servitude 3 1 
 NE - overseas 6 2 
 -- - unknown 22 6 
 
 
Age of Wife
The extremely young ages of the brides (at least as far as modern sensibilities 
are concerned) has already been discussed above in the female section. 
 
Tables have already been presented when discussing the female colonial born 
brides to show their general spread of ages. It is worth noting in particular 
that it is highly unlikely that Sarah Wheeler conceived a child at the age of 
eleven, this is probably a clerical error. On the other had it is possible 
that Mary Cupitt and Rosetta Pearson were only twelve when they married or 
that Elizabeth Barnes, Charlotte Bogg, Mary Sherberd & Elizabeth White were 
only thirteen.
 
At the other end of the scale, Jane Pope was reputedly 76 when she married 
Michael Nowland. Elizabeth Dring was  55 when she married Samuel Arndell 
and Elizabeth Nowland was 52 when she married James Roberts but they both 
had been living with their grooms for many years and had produced twenty 
one children between them !
 
 
Age Difference between Bride and Groom
To be able to derive this figure, the year of birth of both the bride and 
groom needed to be known. Unfortunately in 44 cases (12%), one or the other 
or both of these dates is unknown. The table below lists the age difference 
distributions of the remaining 88% of first 'marriages'.
 
 Table 12.9. - Age Difference at First Marriage
 
 Age Dif. No Age Dif. No Age Dif. No Age Dif. No Age Dif. No 
 ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- 
-10 1 0 10 10 6 20 1 30 0 
 -9 1 1 25 11 10 21 0 31 1 
 -8 1 2 27 12 5 22 0 32 0 
 -7 3 3 20 13 7 23 0 33 1 
 -6 0 4 31 14 2 24 2 34 0 
 -5 5 5 33 15 2 25 1 35 0 
 -4 5 6  21 16 7 26 0 36 0 
 -3 5 7 26 17 2 27 1 37 0 
 -2 9 8 19 18 2 28 0 38 0 
 -1 9 9 13 19 2  29 0 39 0 
 --- --- --- --- --- 
 39 225 45 5 2
 
Not on the table is Michael Nowland, aged 52, who was 24 years younger than 
his wife Jane Pope, aged 76 when they married. The greatest positive age 
difference was between Richard Rees and Ann Bolton, he was 49 and she 16 - a 
difference of 33 years.
 
Looked at in terms of decades; 62% married a woman one decade or less younger, 
12% married a woman two decades or less younger, 1% marred a woman three decades 
or less younger and less than 1% married a woman four decades or less younger. Again the 
difference from the females is striking, the colonial born males tended to 
marry woman much closer to their own age, the females were three times more 
likely to marry a man two decades older and 22 times more likely to marry a 
man three decades older.
 
But not all grooms were older than their brides. There were 39 cases (11%) 
in which the bride was older.
 
Interestingly, for those men with second and subsequent marriages, 
as they became older they preferred to marry even younger women; 39% married 
a woman one decade or less younger, 36% married a woman two decades or less 
younger, 9% marred a woman three decades or less younger and 7% married a 
woman four decades or less younger. William Whittle was 42 years older than 
his second wife. On this occasion the women acted similarly to the men in 
choosing younger partners for their subsequent marriages.
 
Only three of the post primary marriages were to older women and in each case 
in was only by one year.
 
 
Number of Marriages
Second 'marriages' were entered into by 54 men and 7 had three 'marriages'. 
Notice that the males tended to be somewhat less 'promiscuous', only 17% 
of men had multiple marriages compared with a quarter in women, there were 
certainly no males to match Sarah Burgess's five unions nor the 6 women who 
had four.
 
 
Number of Children
For those men with more than one partner, the number of children has been 
totalled for all marriages.
 
The total number of children from these 'marriages' is 2,338 an average of 
7.4 ! Remember too that these figures represent the absolute minimum. 
 
The table below lists the number of issue of each union and the number of 
men who had this issue. The striking thing about this list is just how many 
children the average First Generation man fathered, which by modern standards 
seems incredible.
 
 Table 12.10. - Number of Children
 
 Issue Number Issue Number Issue Number
 ---------------- ---------------- ----------------
 0 15 10 25 22 2
 1 21 11 30
 2 22 12 19 
 3 23 13 12
 4 15 14  8
 5 16 16 4 
 6 22 17 1
 7 25 18 2
 8 34 19 1
 9 21 20 2
 
Note the infertility rate of 4.7%.
 
William Cook & Thomas Lock both fathered 22 children each. The brothers John 
& William Bailey fathered exactly the same number, 20 children each. As noted 
above James Bellamy fathered a child at the age of 76.
 
Regardless of what other accomplishments this First Generation may have 
achieved, and there are many, populating this antipodean colony with loyal 
subjects of George III and his heirs would have to be rated amongst their most 
significant and long lasting.

R

Proceed to Marriages Lists(2)

eturn to 1788-1800

Return to Children Born in the Colony Home Page or Original FFF Website Home Page or New FFF Website Home Page

This work is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.