BURIALS - CHRIST CHURCH ST LAWRENCE SYDNEY

 
 
The first burial was performed at Christ Church St Lawrence on the 18th 
March 1838 by the Rev.Thomas Steele. During the remainder of the 
decade there were 629 more burials performed. This was a very busy church 
with on average almost five 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.
 
The Rev.Thomas Steele was appointed the first chaplain to the parish 
in 1838 but only stayed until the end of the year, assisted on 
several occasions by Rev. Cowper and Bishop Broughton. He was followed 
by Rev.Edward Dicken in 1839 for a couple of months only and finally 
Rev.William Walsh took over in April 1839. During the years 1839 & 1840, 
whilst Walsh is assumed to be the incumbent chaplain, no less than seven 
other chaplains performed burials - the Reverends: Robert Allwood, Robert 
Thorley Bolton, William Cowper, James Edmonston, John Elder, William W 
Simpson, George N Woodd and even William Vaughan visiting from the Diocese 
of Calcutta. This may explain some of the chaotic sequencing of burial 
recordings and on top of all this poor William Bull was buried with no 
clergyman attending!
 
At the time of commencement of St Lawrence 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 or 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 chaplains at St Lawrence were a little slow "to get with the programme" 
when the new government forms arrived in 1839 because it was a couple of 
weeks before they started to record the 'Date of Death'. Then in 1840 the 
old pre 1839 forms were used with the date of death and date of burial 
both squeezed into the one column,
 
The ages at death ranged from one day for four infants to 102 years 
for John Finihan (but this has not been corroborated by other sources) 
and 98 years for Rachel Williams nee Watson (but her indent age would 
suggest she was only 81). The number of infants who did not live past 
their fifth birthday was very high at 222 or 35% of all burials.
 
Despite extensive research the identity of the deceased at Christ Church 
St Laurence has only been discovered in 317 (or 50% of) cases during this 
decade.
 
The entry for John South is a duplicate of the St James Sydney entry.
 
The burial of Joseph Turner in 1840 is recorded twice, once at St Phillips 
and once at St Lawrences although the latter records his abode and 
occupation whilst the former does not plus there is one years difference 
in his age. Interestingly Rev.William Walsh who normally officiated at 
St Lawrences was "filling in" at St Phillips at that time and may have 
inadvertedly confused where he had performed the burial.
 
By an amazing co-incidence two Thomas Lamberts died just six months 
apart in 1839, both aged 46 years, one buried at St James and the other 
at St Lawerences. Similarly two Joseph Danjans, both aged 81 years, who 
died just eleven months apart in 1838, one buried at St Johns Parramatta 
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 for Christ Church run sequentially from 0001 until 
0172 in the first week of 1839 when, belatedly compared to most other 
parishes, the numbers were re-initialize with the introduction of the 
new government forms. Numbers then ran from B001 to B459 at the end of 
the decade. The entry for number 0010 was repeated at number 0012, so 
has been deleted, number B135 was omitted, number B441 was duplicated, 
number B450 came between B334 & B335 and number B459 came between A288 
& B289. 
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the 
name would be made on List 5 using code "SLS" 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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