BAPTISMS - ST MATTHEWS WINDSOR

 
 
There were 493 baptisms performed at St Matthews Windsor during the 
decade, although 28 refer to children born before 1831, plus 22 performed 
after 1840 for children born between the years 1831 and 1840, this amounts 
to 47 more than the previous decade. On average there was roughly one baptism 
performed each week 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 Lake Macquarie Family History Group's "St Matthews Church of England, 
Windsor NSW, Parish Registers 1810 to 1856" was also most helpful in 
providing information.
 
The list is presented in chronological order by date of baptism then by reference
number. The records in the register are not always in strict chronological order 
but this has been corrected in this work.
 
The Rev.Joseph Docker continued his chaplaincy from the previous decade 
until he transferred to St Peters Richmond in March 1833. He was replaced 
by Rev.Henry Tarlton Styles who remained at St Matthews virtually until 
his death in 1867. Other chaplains who officiated at occasional baptisms included
the Reverends: Henry Hodgkinson Bobart, Robert Forrest, Thomas Hassall, John Espey Keane,
Samuel Marsden, Michael Devendish Meares, Thomas Reddall, William Schofield (a Wesleyan
Minister), Richard Taylor, John Troughton and J Wilkinson.
 
With regard to the fathers 85% have been identified.
 
One hundred and forty eight were colonial born plus 22 were childhood arrivals,
combined making up 33% of the total; 181 were convicts or former convicts (35%), 
34 arrived free in the colony (7%) and 49 were in the military (10%).
 
With regard to the mothers 82% have been identified.
 
Two hundred and eleven were colonial born plus 60 were childhood arrivals,
combined making up 53% of the total; 57 were convicts or former convicts (11%), 
95 arrived free in the colony (18%) and there was one aboriginal mother.
 
Assuming listing the mother's surname indicates she was not married to 
the child's father, only thirty two (6%) of the births were illegitimate.
 
Windsor, being one of Governor Macquarie's famous Five Towns on the Hawkesbury
River, was by the 1830's a very stable settled community, representing 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 origins.
 
There were nine 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 0935 and run to 1437 by the end of the decade.
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SMW" 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. 

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