LIST 38 - MARRIAGES - ST JAMES SYDNEY

 
 
The first marriage was performed at St James on the 27th February 1824 by the 
Rev Richard Hill. Up until the end of 1830 there were 335 marriages performed 
at St James. On average about one marriage every week.
 
The information recorded for each marriage is as follows:
 date
 groom 
 family name
 Christian name
 year and ship of arrival
  civil status at time of marriage
 age at marriage
 bride 
 family name
 Christian name
 year and ship of arrival
 civil status at time of marriage
 age at marriage
 comments
 officiating minister
 reference number
 
The marriages are listed in chronological order.
 
In the original register the standard information recorded was; date, family 
name and Christian name of both bride and groom and the officiating minister. 
Information in the register but not included here includes; names of the 
witnesses to the marriage. 
 
Rev Hill proved to be a genealogists dream in that he routinely recorded the 
age and civil status of the couple as well as their ship of arrival in all 
except those who came free. More interestingly still he recorded the 
occupation of the groom (and one bride). Speaking of occupations, it is 
interesting to note the surprising lack of unskilled labourers amongst the 
grooms almost everyone had a trade or profession of one sort or another. Sadly 
there was not a single "cobbler", they were all shoemakers, perhaps the former 
really only existed in children's fairy tales. The consent of the governor 
was occasionally recorded for serving convicts after 1826.
 
As explained above the age at marriage is a derived figure.
 
The parish of St James was split off from St Phillips in 1824. The Reverend 
Richard Hill was the incumbent minister for the whole of this decade. The 
Rev Samuel Marsden performed a couple of marriages in 1827 and 1828; the Rev 
Elijah Smith a couple in 1828 and one in 1829; the Rev Thomas Hassall one in 
1828 and one in 1829; the Rev William Cowper one in 1830; the Rev John Vincent 
a couple in 1830 and the Rev William Yates performed eight marriages in 
1830.
 
It would seem that the more prominent members of society could even have the 
Archdeacon officiate at their nuptuals. Archdeacon Scott married John Campbell 
and James Roe in August 1828, George Edward Nicholas Weston to a daughter of 
Colonel Johnston in May 1829 and Archibald Clunes Innes in October 1829. 
Archdeacon Broughton married Thomas Wood and John Jones in December 1829 and 
William John Dumaresq to a daughter of Alexander MacLeay in October 1830.
 
There was one duplicate marriage, that of Hugh Corrigan to Elizabeth Walker 
in August 1830, repeating the ceremony at All Saints Sutton Forest. This 
was the only instant of a Protestant/Protestant duplication for the decade.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the entry in the original parish 
register. In this instance the numbers run from 0001 to 0055 up to the end 
of 1825. As with all the churches in the colony, following Governor Brisbane's 
directive, St James received a printed register in 1826 but the numbering 
system of marriages re-initialized to "162" instead of the usual "1" for 
some reason.
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name 
would be made on Lists 27 or 28 using code "SJS" from which the date of marriage 
would be retrieved, secondly using the appropriate date, the marriage would 
then be located on this list.

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