BURIALS - ST MATTHEWS WINDSOR ROMAN CATHOLIC

 
 
The first burial was performed at St Matthews on 3rd January 1835 by the 
Rev.Christopher Dowling. There were 177 further burials performed during 
this decade. On average two and a half burial per month.
 
The information recorded for each burial is as follows:
 burial date
 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.
 
Reverend Father Christopher Dowling was the first chaplain of St Matthews 
but he only stayed nine months to be replaced by Reverend Father 
Vincent Corcoran who took over in October 1835 and stayed until his tragic 
death in September 1837. The Reverend Father John Brady took over in 1838 
and remained in the parish until 1843. There was occasional assistance 
from other Reverend Fathers; - Furness (1837), Henry Gregory (1737) 
Joseph Sumner (1838), Richard Maun (1840) and Thomas Slattery (1840). Added 
to which the parish clerk William Harding officiated at three burials 
in 1838 and finally on seventeen occasions no clergyman was recorded.
 
At the time of commencement of St Matthews the information to be recorded 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. Unfortunately the ship of arrival was only recorded 
for serving convicts and then quite rarely. Otherwise the year and ship 
of arrival have been heavily researched on material outside the parish 
register.
 
Like St Marys, St Matthews did not use the government forms until 1839 and 
then not the updated forms and as a consequence no dates of death 
were recorded (not that it made up for it by recording more ships of 
arrival mind you).
 
For the colonial born their year of birth and parents names are recorded 
in the ship of arrival column.
 
The ages of the deceased ranged from three days for Elizabeth Cullen 
(three infants did not have their ages recorded) to 97 years for Joseph 
McCarthy (but according to his age on arrival he was only 67) and 93 years 
for Patrick Fitzpatrick (and likewise according to his age on arrival he 
was only 83). Seven adults did not have their ages recorded. The number 
of infants who did not live past their fifth birthday was the relatively 
low 22 or 12% of burials.
 
Despite extensive research the identity of the deceased at St Matthews 
has only been discovered in 99 (or 56% of) cases during this decade.
 
A woman called Elizabeth died at Wilberford in 1836 aged 44 years 
but her surname was illegible.
 
There were two burials in the State Archives Pioneer Series file which 
have no entry on this parish register. It is very likely that both 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 reference numbers for St Matthew 
run sequentially from 0001 to 0180 at the end of the decade (however 
nos 15 and 42 were duplicated and nos 31,32,118,119 & 122 were 
omitted). 
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the 
name would be made on List 5 using code "SMWR" 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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