LIST 4 - MARRIAGES - BRIDES NAME ORDER

 
 
There were 8,434 marriages recorded during this decade, which is over 
five thousand more than in the previous decade.
 
The information recorded for each marriage is as follows:
 date
 church
 bride 
 family name
 Christian name
 year and ship of arrival
 civil status at time of marriage
 age at marriage
 groom 
  family name
 Christian name
 year and ship of arrival
 civil status at time of marriage
 age at marriage
 
The marriages are listed in alphabetical order on the name of the 
bride.
 
A slash (/) after the family name indicates that the bride was widow 
and her maiden name if known, preceeds the slash and her previous 
married name succeeds the slash.
 
The ship of arrival (or date of birth) of only 4,879 brides (58%) has 
been identified for this decade, with the arrival status of further 
154 being known, bringing the percentage to 61%, the vast majority 
being convicts or former convicts. This greatly increased 
percentage of non identified brides is a reflection on the increasing 
proportion of free persons arriving in the colony, who unlike their 
convicted counterparts are far less well documented in colonial 
records of the time.
 
Sometimes the marriage register records a ship of arrival but the name 
cannot be located on the relevant shipping indent. These are 
indicated by the absence of a year of arrival.
 
Sometimes the marriage register records the bride was native born but 
no collaborting evidence of the birth can be located. These are 
indicated by the absence of a year of birth.
 
With regard to the brides, of the 5,033 (61%) whose arrival status 
has been found there were basically three groups; convicts (2,620 - 
51%), colonial born (1,090 - 21%) and free arrivals (1,322 - 25%). 
 
The convict group can be further divided into: serving convicts; 
2,468 (48%) and emancipated or pardoned convicts; 152 (3%). 
 
Amongst the colonial born there was one Aborigial and two Maoris. 
 
Of the free arrivals group; 422 (8%) were not further classified, 159 
(3%) were chidren accompanying adults and 741 (14%) were bounty 
immigrants who were introduced to the colony in great numbers during 
this decade.
 
Of those whose arrival status is unknown very few would be serving 
convicts as they are relatively easily identifiable meaning the 
proportions of all other categories would almost certainly double.
 
There were 87 brides who are described in the marriage register as 
a "free woman". Unfortunately it is not certain whether this means 
free by arrival, servitude or birth. But in all probability most of 
these would be free by servitude.
 
There were 91 duplicate entries, these are marked with an asterix (*). 
The majority (80) were couples being remarried in the Catholic 
Church after a Protestant ceremony (50 to Anglicans, 11 to 
Presbyterians, 2 to Wesleyan-Methodists and 2 to Hebrews). 15 refer 
to first marriages before 1831. There were surprisingly five cases 
of a Presbyterian marriage following an Anglican one and one case 
of an Hebrew marriage after an Anglican one.
 
More difficult to explain and understand are the three couples who 
had two Anglican marriages (John Cook to Fanny Hamilton in 1840, 
Henry Stockford to Elizabeth Bowen in 1838 and John Supple to Mary 
Foster in 1839/40) and the two couples who had two Presbyterian 
marriages (Thomas Johnson to Elizabeth Gill in 1836 and Thomas Foster 
to Mary Ann Robinson in 1838/40).
 
Whilst some parish registers began to record the age of the bride and 
groom, in most instances this is a computed figure from ages recorded 
on shipping indents, death details, census & muster details. 
Therefore they must be treated as an estimate at best. Only for the 
colonial born is it calculated from a known date of birth. 
 
The age of 59% of the brides has been calculated, but as they say "the 
past is a different country, they do things differently there". 
No less than 12 colonial born brides were only 13 years old (with 
known recorded birth dates) when they married and 23 were only 14. 
At the other age extreme, Sarah Fox claimed to be 72!
 
Another issue which arises when attempting to identify brides is in 
regard to the shipping indents. Married women are often recorded 
under both their maiden and married names but unfortunately 
the two names are only identified as an "alias" making it unclear 
which is which. It would have been so much more helpful if they had 
identified the maiden name with a "nee".

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