LIST 4 - BAPTISMS - ST PHILLIPS SYDNEY
This first 'primary source' list contains the details of 695 baptisms
recorded in St Phillip's church register for children born between 1787 and
1800, 340 males and 355 females.
The information recorded for each child includes:
reference number date of baptism date of birth Christian name father's Christian name father's family name father's year of arrival in the colony father's ship of arrival in the colony father's status upon arrival in the colony mother's Christian name mother's maiden name mother's year of arrival in the colony mother's ship of arrival in the colony mother's status upon arrival in the colony parent's civil status at the time of the child's birth parent's marital status at the time of the child's birth parent's year & country/church of marriage where applicable The list is presented in chronological order by date of baptism then
alphabetically by father's surname.
These St Phillips baptisms account for 35% of the First Generation.
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 entry in the original source document.
It should be noted that this is 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. Many
entries in the church register list just the date of baptism and parents names,
sometimes only the mother's name if the birth was illegitimate.The Reverend Richard Johnson commenced recording entries in what would become
St Phillip's church register even before the First Fleet left England. On
the 20th April 1797 he baptized two infants, William Tilley and Edward
Devan on board the 'Lady Penrhyn' whilst the ship still lay at harbour in
Portsmouth. He performed twelve other baptisms on the voyage out, two in June
when the fleet reached Tenereife, five in August at Rio de Janeiro and
another five in October at the Cape of Good Hope. Then on the 21st January
1788 he performed the first baptism in Australian waters whilst the fleet lay in Botany Bay upon Joshua Bentley. The first three baptisms on actual Australian soil took place on the 3rd February 1788 when he baptized James Thomas,
John Arscott and Joseph Downey. Elizabeth Bacon is actually the sixteenth entry
in the register after Joshua Bentley but her date of baptism is the 10th February
- a date after the next three entries - if the date is incorrect she may have
been the first child baptized in the colony, although the entry does state
that the baptism took place on board 'HMS Sirius'.
It was not until November 1791 that the date of birth of the child was
routinely recorded along with the date of baptism. In those cases where no
date of birth was recorded the year of baptism has been taken as the year
of birth and no doubt this was indeed the case in the majority of cases.
Thirty baptisms took place after 1800 when older children came to baptism, the
latest being Daniel Cubitt in 1807 at the age of seven.
Between 1788 and 1800 there were on average 50 baptisms a year as the table below illustrates. Christmas Day was generally a very popular day for baptism.
What a joyous day Christmas Day 1794 must have been in the infant colony when
nine little New South Welshmen were welcomed into the Body of Christ.
Joseph William Pitt was baptised twice, in 1797 and 1806 both times at St
Phillips as was his sister Mary.
Why some children in a family were baptised and others not is something of
a mystery. Taking the prominent colonial family of the Macarthurs as an example,
Edward, James and William were baptised yet Elizabeth and John were not.
The numbers of boys and girls almost being equal with just 15 more female
baptisms. About half the fathers were convicts, or former convicts, the
remainder being mainly marines and soldiers. Almost three quarters of the mothers were convicts, reflecting the fact that female convicts were the
main group of women to arrive in the colony at this time apart from the wives
of the marines and soldiers. Just over half the births were illegitimate.
Table 4.1 - Baptisms St Phillips Sydney
Total Males Females Convict Convict Legitimate Illegitimate
Father Mother
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1787 14 7 7 1 5 9 5
1788 28 19 9 9 20 13 15
1789 40 24 16 17 33 17 23
1790 37 23 14 10 25 17 20
1791 41 18 23 13 28 20 21
1792 44 17 27 20 41 20 24
1793 46 20 26 17 31 23 23
1794 63 29 34 29 43 28 35
1795 61 29 32 39 42 32 29
1796 61 29 32 36 45 23 38
1797 62 29 33 31 49 32 30
1798 52 26 26 29 40 26 26
1799 56 28 28 33 41 27 29
1800 61 31 30 35 49 27 34
>1800 29 11 18 14 18 8 21
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Totals 695 340 355 333 510 322 373
Percentages 48.9% 51.1% 47.8% 73.4% 46.3% 53.7%
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SPS" 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.
The abbreviations used in this list are explained below:
d = defacto m = married CF = came free GS = government servant (convict) FS = free by servitude (emancipist) AP = free by absolute pardon CP = free by conditional pardon EX = exile NE = never emigrated -- = unknownEng = England
Ire = Ireland
Sct = Scotland
Wal = Wales
Can = Canterbury
Dst = Dorsetshire
Dvn = Devonshire
Hmp = Hampshire
Ldn = London
Mdx = Middlesex
War = Warwickshire
Yrk = Yorkshire
NI = Norfolk Island
SJP = St Johns Parramatta
SPS = St Phillips Sydney
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