LIST 14 - BAPTISMS - TROISIEME DIZAINE - ST MARYS HOBART

 
 
The second Roman Catholic parish to be established in the colony was St Marys 
at Hobart Van Diemens Land. This eleventh 'primary source' list contains the 
details of 70 baptisms recorded in  St Mary's church register for children born 
between 1811 and 1820, 35 males and 35 females.
 
The information recorded and presented for each child is exactly as described 
for St Phillips in List 4.
 
These St Marys Hobart baptisms account for 1% of the "Troisieme Dizaine".
 
There were nine duplicate entries on the register during the period under 
study reducing the total of individual baptisms to 61 (30 males & 31 females). 
All nine were previously baptized at Anglican churches, thus bearing witness 
to the early sectarian divide in the colony (which existed well into the latter 
part of the twentieth century).
 
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 relevant entry in the 
original source document.
 
It should be noted that this list contains 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.
 
Not infrequently genealogists are confronted with odd situations in the 
pursuit of their passion and the case of the Reverend Conolly and his baptismal 
register is one such example.
 
The Rev. Philip Conolly along with the Rev. John Therry were the first 
officially sanctioned Roman Catholic priests to be appointed to the colony 
of New South Wales. They sailed together in the 'Janus' reaching Sydney on the 
3rd May 1820. Whilst Therry was allocated to New South Wales, Conolly was 
destined for Van Diemens Land but Governor Macquarie detained him in the 
senior colony for a year.
 
Four weeks after his arrival Conolly performed his first baptism on the 31st 
May. He continued to baptise children until Macquarie finally released him to 
his duty in Hobart Town. He performed his last baptism in Sydney on the 23rd 
March 1821. According to his entry in the 'Australian Dictionary of Biography', 
Conolly left for Hobart in April 1821 arriving on the 14th and upon checking 
Cumpston's 'Shipping Arrivals & Departures, Sydney, 1788-1825' the only ship 
to leave for that southern settlement around this time was the brig 'Active'. 
He performed his first baptism in Hobart two days later on the 16th April.
 
So far so good but it would appear that the Rev. Conolly took his register with 
him to Hobart Town resulting in the intriguing situation of having several 
people born and baptised in New South Wales appearing in records in Van Diemens 
Land!
 
Adding to the genealogical challenge, Conolly recorded his baptismal entries 
in Latin, transcribing all the Christian names into that ancient language. 
Fortunately most can be easily retranslated into English although the correct 
transcription of "Lamentis" remains a mystery.
 
One final twist in the saga, the State Archives in Tasmania assigned a 
consecutive running number to each entry for every birth in the colony. The 
twenty four baptisms from New South Wales (but recorded as at Hobart) run 
from 893 to 1106 but in assigning the numbers they obviously transposed the 
first and second pages of Conolly's register. As a consequence numbers 893 
to 904 refer to baptisms on the second page occurring after baptisms on 
the first page, numbered 905 to 916.
 
Those few entries which have a date of birth recorded come from analysis 
conducted for the Pioneer Register Project, the dates of birth not being recorded 
in the original document.
 
Thirty five baptisms took place after 1820 when older children came to baptism, 
the latest being John McCarthy in 1826 at the age of nine.
 
There was one baptism of a native child on the list.
 
On this occasion the numbers of boys and girls were exactly equal. Three 
fifths of fathers were convicts or former convicts, and two fifths of the 
mothers were convicts or former convicts. Only four mothers were colonial born 
and there were no colonial born fathers. Sadly the civil status of 40% of parents 
is unknown at this time. Only a third of the births were legitimate.
 
 Table 14.1 - Baptisms St Marys Hobart
  
 Total Males Females Convict Convict Colonial Colonial Legitimate 
 Father Mother Father Mother 
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1820 24 12 12 17 10 0 1 6 
 >1820 46 23 23 25 16 0 3 15  
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Totals 70 35 35 42 26 0 4 21 
Percentages 50.0% 50.0% 60.0% 37.1% 0.0% 5.7% 30.0% 
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SMH" 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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