BURIALS - ST JOHNS SYDNEY

 
 
There were 1,555 burials performed at St Johns during this decade 
almost one thousand more than the previous decade. There were on average 
almost three burials every week.
 
The information recorded for each burial is as follows:
 burial date
 death date (after 1838)
 Christian name
 family name
 age
 abode
 civil status at time of death
 year and ship of arrival
 quality or profession
 officiating minister
 reference number
 
Various miscellaneous remarks in the register have been recorded as 
'end-notes' at the bottom of the list.
 
The burials are listed in chronological order. The records in the register 
are not always in strict chronological order but this has been corrected 
in this work.
 
Like St Phillips, St Johns was also a very busy parish as it was responsible 
for the burials from three major institutions in the Parramatta area which 
accounted for nearly half of all burials from the parish: the Female 
Factory (396-24%), the General Hospital (219-14%), the Female Orphan 
Institution (138-9%). Both the Factory and Institution contributed to 
a heavy burden of infant and child mortality.
 
Being the Senior Chaplain of the colony Rev.Marsden no doubt had many 
responsibilities both in the colony as well as his missionary work 
in New Zealand, thus during the decade he was assisted by no less than 
eighteen other chaplains in his absence. These were the Reverends: Henry 
Hodgdinson Bobart, Robert Cartwright, William Branwhite Clarke, William 
Cowper, Charles Dickinson, John Duffus, Robert Forest, Henry Fulton, 
Thomas Hassall, John Espie Keane, Robert Maunsell, Henry Talton Stiles, 
Richard Taylor, John Troughton, Frederick W Wilkinson, Charles Playdall 
Neale Wilton, George Napoleon Woodd, William Yates
 
As  a result, unlike Rev.Cowper at St Phillips who performed nearly 
all his parish's burials, Rev.Marsden officiated at only half at St Johns 
up until his death in 1838.
 
The Rev. Henry Hodgdinson Bobart, who had acted as Marsden's curate 
took over the parish for the rest of the decade after Marsden's death.
 
At the beginning of this decade the information to be recorded on the 
official government supplied forms for each burial was; reference number, 
date of burial, Christian name of the deceased, family name of the deceased, 
age, abode, ship of arrival, quality or profession and officiating 
minister. 
 
Regrettably in 1839 the 'Ship of Arrival' column was removed from the 
official forms altogether but it was still occasionally recorded by 
nothing like as often as previously. The year and ship of arrival have 
been heavily researched outside the parish register.
 
The 'Ship of Arrival' column was replaced by a 'Date of Death' column, 
making identifiation much more difficult.
 
For the colonial born their year of birth and parents names are recorded 
in the 'Ship of Arrival' column. 
 
Unfortunately in 1835 the ship of arrival of mothers of infants dying 
at the Female Factory ceased to be recorded which is a great pity because 
there were so many of them who will probably neer be identified. Added to which 
the fact that so many died before they could be baptised (which would have 
shown their parents) also made it so much harder to determine their identity. 
 
As the decade progressed the Ship of Arrival data was recorded less and 
less until in 1836 there was not one ship recorded.
 
By 1837 the details recorded for each burial were almost non existant. 
It is particularly disappointing for the infants who were no longer 
identified as dying in the Female Factory or not.
 
It has generally been assumed that all infants dying at the Female 
Factory had convict mothers, but the second half of 1835 the term 
'spinsters child' began to appear. Does this mean that they were the 
children of unmarried free women or was a distinction now being 
made between married and unmarried convict women?
 
It appears a little unkind to refer to poor Jane Templeton as  a 'spinster' 
when she was still only fourteen years old.
 
Henry Catterall is recorded as living for only four hours and John 
Shanahan for only eight. At the other end of the scale, some of the ages 
are quite fanciful, people seemed to like exaggerating the age of the 
elderly. For example Elizabeth Eccles is recorded as 105 years when in 
fact she was closer to 96 and Mary Collins was most unlikely to be 98 years 
old.
 
Infant mortality was extremely high at St Johns with 730 infants (47% of 
all deaths) not living past their fifth birthday. The presence in the 
parish of the Female Factory and the Female Orphan Institution accounting 
for most of this. 
 
Despite extensive research the identity of the deceased at St Johns 
has only been discovered in 691 (or 44% of) cases during this decade.
 
The Rev.William Cowper officiated at the burial of Rev.Marsden's wife 
Elizabeth in 1835 and then at the burial of Rev. Marsden himself in 1838. 
Rev.Marsden performed his last burial on the 4th March 1838 before dying 
on the 16th May. 
 
John Wesley Parker and William Russell have possibly been entered twice 
with differing burial dates.
 
An amazing co-incidence occurred with two Joseph Danjans, both aged 
81 years, who died just eleven months apart in 1838, one buried at St 
Johns and the other at St Lawrences.
 
There were eight burials in the State Archives Pioneer Series file which 
have no entry on this parish register.  It is very likely that most of 
these result from typographical errors and relate to post 1840 burials.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry 
in the original source document. The numbering system continued from 
the previous decade at C444 and ran to C933 in 1834 before the system 
was re-initialized in 1835 to D001 which in turn ran until D688 (number 
D488 was omitted and D606 was duplicated) before being re-initialized 
for the last time in 1839 from E001 before reaching E373 at the end of 
the decade. 
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the 
name would be made on List 5 using the code "SJP" from which the date 
of burial would be retrieved, secondly using the appropriate date, the 
death would then be located on this list.

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