LIST 13 - BAPTISMS - TROISIEME DIZAINE - ST MARYS SYDNEY

 
 
The first church to be established in the colony for a denomination 
other than the Church of England was Roman Catholic St Marys at Sydney. This 
tenth 'primary source' list contains the details of 119 baptisms recorded in 
St Mary's church register for children born between 1811 and 1820, 58 males and 
61 females.
 
The information recorded and presented for each child is exactly as described 
for St Phillips in List 4.
 
These St Marys Sydney baptisms account for 2% of the "Troisieme Dizaine".
 
There were 25 duplicate entries on the register during the period under study 
(and Sarah Ryan had a triplicate entry!) reducing the total of individual 
baptisms to 91 (39 males & 52 females). Nearly all were previously baptized 
at Anglican churches, thus bearing witness to the early sectarian divide 
in the colony (which existed well into the latter 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.
 
The Rev. John Joseph Terry arrived on board the "Janus" on the 3rd May 1820. 
He performed his first baptism twelve days later on the 15th instant upon 
John Harper. However there are four baptisms performed in late September 
and October 1819 which may have been  performed on board "Janus" before it 
left Cork in Ireland, although no evidence for these families reaching the 
colony has been found, which suggests that they may have been residents of 
Cork.
 
As well there are 23 baptisms recorded at the front of the register performed 
in January and February 1819 for people living in Cork if the names of the 
streets where they lived are any guide.
 
Regretfully Rev Terry did not record the date of birth of his baptisms until 
1826 making it difficult to determine who were and who were not "Troisieme 
Dizaine" . Obviously all baptisms for the year 1820 are included but only those 
after that date where the year of birth can be calculated from other sources 
are included. In the same year he also started to record the occupation of the 
father (in some entries only regretfully).
 
Sixty baptisms took place after 1820 when older children came to baptism, the 
latest being John Pearce in 1832 at the age of seventeen.
 
There were slightly more girls baptized than boys. Seventy percent of 
fathers were convicts or former convicts, and forty percent of the mothers 
were convicts or former convicts. There was one colonial born father and 
twenty three colonial born mothers. Sadly the civil status of 20% of parents 
is unknown at this time. Less than half of the births were legitimate.
 
 Table 13.1 - Baptisms St Marys Sydney
  
 Total Males Females Convict Convict Colonial Colonial Legitimate 
 Father Mother Father Mother 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1819 4 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 
 1820 55 30 25 37 21 1 11 29 
 >1820 60 27 33 47 29 0  12 24 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Totals 119 58 61 84 50 1 23 53 
Percentages 48.7% 51.3% 70.6% 42.0%  0.8% 19.3% 44.5% 
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SMS" 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. 

Proceed to Church Register

Return to 1811-1820

Return to Home Page

This work is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.