BURIALS - ST PAULS COBBITTY

 
 
There were 151 burials performed at St Pauls during this decade. On average 
a little over one per month.
 
The information recorded for each burial is as follows:
 burial date
 death date (1839 only)
 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 Rev. Thomas Hassall continued his chaplaincy from the previous 
decade and was the chaplain for the whole of this decade. However 
he was assisted at times by the Reverends; Jakob Wilhelm Gunther, Thomas 
Reddall, Richard Taylor and Frederick W Wilkinson. On one occasion no 
clergyman was available and the burials was performed by the parish clerk 
George Horne.
 
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.
 
Apparently in 1840 the parish must have run out of the new forms and reverted 
to the pre 1839 forms, which of course did not contain the 'Date of 
death' column.
 
It is interesting to note that the original spelling for the town of 
Cobbitty was apparently "Cobbedee".
 
The ages at death ranged from fourteen hours for Daniel Canvin to 85 years 
for William Hewitt (although if his age on the indent is correct he was 
only 78). The number of infants who did not live past their fifth birthday 
was high at 57 or 37% of all burials.
 
Despite extensive research the identity of the deceased at St Pauls 
has only been discovered in 102 (or 68% of) cases during this decade.
 
One of the most significant and influential personages of the Convict 
Era history of New South Wales, John Macarthur, was buried at St Pauls 
in 1834.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry 
in the original source document. The reference numbers for St Pauls 
continued from the previous decade and run sequentially from 0021 to 0117 
by the end of 1838. In 1839 the numbers were re-initialized to B001 and 
ran to B054 by the end of the decade. The number 0020 was omitted.
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the 
name would be made on List 5 using code "SPCO" 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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