BURIALS - ST JAMES SYDNEY

 
 
There were 2,107 burials performed at St James during this decade, 
being on average four 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
  reference number
 
Various miscellaneous remarks in the register have been recorded as 
'end-notes' at the bottom of the list. Happily for the historian 
these notes are quite extensive in many cases. The various grisly ways 
people met their doom makes for fascinating reading.
 
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.
 
The Reverend Richard Hill continued his chaplaincy from the previous 
decade as the incumbent minister until his death on the 30th May 1836 
(he actually died in the church vestry after performing his last burial 
the very same day). The Rev.William Cowper 'stepped into the breach' in 
June, then Rev. William Yate managed the parish in July and August until 
the Rev. Robert Cartwright became the new resident chaplain in September. 
He in turn was replaced by the Rev.George Woodd in 1838 before the 
Rev.Robert Allwood commenced his long encumbacy in December 1839.
 
During this decade, apart from the six chaplains mentioned above, no less 
than eighteen other chaplains performed occasional burials at St James, 
they being the Reverends: John Thorley Bolton, Edmund Ashton  Ducker, 
James Edmondston, John Elder, Octavius Hadfield, Thomas Hassall, Thomas 
Cooper Makinson, Edward Rogers, William W Simpson, Hart Davis Draper 
Sparling, Thomas Steele, Henry Tarlton Stiles, Richard Taylor, John 
Vincent, Joseph Kidd Walpole, William Horatio Walsh, William Watson, 
Frederick W Wilkinson. Even the Archdeacon William Grant Broughton 
officiated at the burial of Lt.Berkley in 1831. 
 
In spite of the presence of all of the above, on 31 occasions no clergyman 
was attendance.
 
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 identification much more difficult.
 
For the colonial born their year of birth and parents names are recorded 
in the 'Ship of Arrival' column.
 
The 'age at death' ranged from two hours for Rebecca Andrews and one day 
for William Griffiths to supposedly 109 years for William Bond, 108 years 
for John Wright and 104 years for John James. Infant mortality was very 
high during this decade with 529 infants (25% of all deaths) not living 
past their fifth birthday. 
 
Despite extensive research the identity of the deceased at St James 
has only been discovered in 1,137 (or 54% of) cases during this decade.
 
By an amazing co-incidence two Thomas Lamberts died just six months 
apart, both aged 46 years, one buried at St James and the other at St 
Lawrences.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry 
in the original source document. The reference numbers ontinued from 
the previous decade starting at B601 and ran to B1078 in mid January 
1834 when they were re-initialized to C001 which ran to C1126 by 
the end of 1838. The numbers C208,C209,C210,C1002,C1004 & C1123 
were omitted but C478 and C479 were repeated. Again re-initialized in 
1839 from D001 to D300 then one last re-initialization in 1840 from E001 
to E306 at the end of the decade. In mid June 1840 the parish clerk 
obviously ran out of the official government printed forms for burials and 
was forced to revert to the 1838 version which did not have the column 
for "date of death" regrettably and for some reason he skipped from 
E118 to E208 omitting ninety numbers (E119 to E207) in the process! 
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the 
name would be made on List 5 using code "SJS" from which the date of 
burial would be retrieved, secondly using the appropriate date, the 
burial would then be located on this list.

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