BAPTISMS - ST JAMES PITT TOWN

 
 
There were 107 baptisms performed at St James Pitt Town during the decade, 
although 23 refer to children born before 1831, plus 3 performed after 
1840 for children born between the years 1831 and 1840. On average there 
were about ten baptisms performed each year over the decade.
 
The information recorded for each baptism includes: 
 
 date of baptism 
 date of birth
 child's Christian name
 father's family name 
 father's Christian name 
 father's year & ship of arrival in the colony 
 father's status upon arrival in the colony 
 mother's maiden name
 mother's Christian name
 mother's year & ship of arrival in the colony
 mother's status upon arrival in the colony
 parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth
 parents' marital status at the time of the child's birth
 parents' year & country/church of marriage where applicable 
 child's place of birth
 father's quality or profession 
 officiating minister
 reference number
 
Father's year & ship of arrival in the colony, father's status upon arrival in the colony,
mother's year & ship of arrival in the colony, mother's status upon arrival in the colony, 
parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth, parents' marital status 
at the time of the child's birth, parents' year & country/church of marriage 
where applicable are all value added details resulting from extensive personal 
research, information which makes this work so valuable for family historians.
 
In the church register the mother's maiden name is only recorded when the birth 
is illegitimate, but again through personal research the maiden name of many of the 
married women has been discovered as well.
 
The Rev. Matthew Devenish Meares continued as incumbent from the previous decade 
until 1836. The Rev. Henry Tarlton Stiles was chaplain in 1837 and the Rev. John Espey 
Keane was the chaplain from 1838 to 1839. The Rev. Charles Kemp took over in 1840.
 
For some reason, when baptising his three children, the Rev. Mears described himself
as a clerk.
 
The list is presented in chronological order by date of baptism then 
alphabetically by father's surname. The records in the register are not 
always in strict chronological order but this has been corrected in this work.
 
With regard to the fathers 85% have been identified.
 
Fifty were colonial born plus one childhood arrival, combined making up 
46% of the total; 38 were convicts or former convicts (35%) 
and four arrived free in the colony (4%).
 
With regard to the mothers 84% have been identified.
 
Fifty nine were colonial born plus 16 were childhood arrivals, combined making up 
68% of the total; 11 were convicts or former convicts (10%) and six arrived free 
in the colony (5%).
 
Assuming listing the mother's surname indicates she was not married to 
the child's father, sixteen (15%) of the births were illegitimate.
 
Pitt Town, being one of Governor Macquarie's famous Five Towns on the Hawkesbury
River, was by the 1830's a very stable settled community, respresenting the very 
epitomy of the old convict and emancipist societies, descended mainly from the earliest
felons transported to the colony, whom Macquarie had planted there, where they flourished 
and prospered. The emancipist character of the parish was to persist for many generations 
unlike other places, such as Sydney Town or Parramatta where, diluted by the influx of free
arrivals to the colony, they were rapidly loosing their original convict foundations.
 
There were five baptisms 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 baptisms.
These are identified with the percent sign (%). 
 
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 0035 and run to 0141 by the end of the decade.
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SJPT" on Lists 1 & 2. To 
locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name would 
be made on List 1 or 2 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 1831-1840

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.