LIST 13 - BAPTISMS - ST THOMAS PORT MACQUARIE

 
 
St Thomas Port Macquarie was founded in 1824 becoming the 12th Church of England 
parish established in the colony. There were 47 baptisms performed during the 
years 1824 to 1830, although 4 refer to children born before 1821, plus 
4 performed after 1830 for children born between the years 1821 and 1830. On 
average there was about one baptism performed every ten weeks over the decade.
 
The information recorded for each child is exactly as described for the pre 
1826 presentation of St Phillips Sydney in List 3. Since all the places of 
birth were recorded as Port Macquarie and since the numbers are small it was 
decided to continue with the pre 1826 layout and list the known father's 
occupation as end notes for all post 1826 entries.
 
The list is presented in chronological order by date of baptism then 
alphabetically by father's surname. 
 
With regard to the fathers; the arrival details of six remain unknown whilst 
in four cases the ship of arrival remains unknown (22%).
 
Twenty were convicts or former convicts (38%), 20 were soldiers or former 
soldiers (40%) and 5 came free (10%).
 
With regard to the mothers; the names of 7 were not recorded and the arrival 
details of 9 remain unknown whilst in 2 cases the ship of arrival remains 
unknown (22%).
 
Nine were convicts or former convicts (18%), 23 came free (46%) and 9 were 
colonial born (18%).
 
Four (8%) of the births were illegitimate.
 
The first baptism was performed on the 2nd May 1824 by the Rev Hassall.
 
The Rev Thomas Hassall was appointed as the first chaplain to the new parish 
of St Thomas Port Macquarie in 1824 where he stayed until December 1827 when 
the Rev John Cross took over in February 1828. 
 
According to the historian of a centenary history of St Thomas's published in 
1924, the church building is the third oldest in the country although it is not 
certain that this is true.
 
Unfortunately the microfilm of the register for the years 1824 and 1825 and 
not been found nor consulted but fortunately a reasonable approximation of 
the entries can be recreated from the Kerrison James Index. The only 
information in this period which would not be certain is the chaplain but most 
certainly was Rev Hassall in all cases.
 
When the new standardized registers were introduced in 1826 the information 
recorded for each baptism was; date of baptism, date of birth, Christian name 
of child, Christian and family name  of father, Christian name of mother (family 
name only when the child was illegitimate), the place of residence of the 
family, quality or profession of the father and minister performing the 
ceremony.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry in 
the original source document. Interestingly the numbering system was 
re-initialized in 1828.
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "STPM" 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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