LIST 14 - BURIALS - ST PHILLIPS SYDNEY

 
 
There were 939 burials performed at St Phillips during this 'decade'. Convict James 
Copp was the first burial in the colony on the 19th February 1788. There were on average 
about one and a half burials every week, but as can be seen from the table below there 
was a spike in the number of burials in the stavation years of 1790 and after the arrival 
of the "death fleet" in 1791.
 
The information recorded for each burial is as follows:
  date
 family name
 Christian name
 age
 civil status at time of death
 year and ship of arrival
 comments
 reference number
 
The burials are listed in chronoligical order.
 
It should be pointed out that in the original register the only information recorded was; 
date, family name, Christian name and very occasionally a comment as to status or cause 
of death. Information in the register not recorded here is the name of the officiating 
minister.
 
In 191 (20%) cases the ship of arrival or names of parents are unknown. One sailor is 
recorded as arriving on board the 'Experiment' but there was no ship of that name during 
the period under investigation.
 
There were 642 (68%) convicts or former convicts, 70 (7%) were soldiers or former soldiers, 
28 (3%) were seamen, 14 (1.5%) came free, 183 (20%) were infants or children and 2 were 
of unknown status.
 
The age at death has been able to be calculated in 303 (32%) cases.
 
The register interestingly records the cause of death in 34 
cases.
 
The reference numbers are generally perfectly sequential with only a couple of occasions 
where they are out of order for some reason. There is a gap of twenty numbers (46-75) between 
the end of the shipboard burials and the commencement of the colonial burials. Whether 
this means there are twenty missing burials is uncertain at this time. No. 180 has no 
name recorded for the burial, no. 308 was omitted, nos. 539 & 692 have no name 
recorded, no. 792 has no surname recorded and no. 979 is omitted. 
 
There were four burials which were duplicated for some reason.
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name would be made 
on List 13 from which the date of death would be retrieved, secondly using the appropriate 
date, the burial would then be located on this list.

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