BURIALS - ST PETERS EAST MAITLAND

 
 
There were 446 burials performed at St Peters during this decade. On average 
about one 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
 
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. Frederick Wilkinson continued as chaplain from the previous 
decade until Rev.George Keylock Rusden was appointed to the parish in 
1834, but Wilkinson was primarily based in Newcastle which meant 
he only ocasionally performed any burials at Maitland before Rusden 
arrived. Most burials in the early years were performed by Mr.Nathaniel 
Goldingham - parish clerk and Leut.John Wood RN - catechist, who continued 
in this role many times even after Rev.Rusden arrived. The Reverends; 
R Bland, William Stack & Charles Pleydall Neale Wilton performed 
occasional burials.
 
Burials at St Peters seemed to be an ecumenical affair during this decade. 
There were 22 burials performed and recorded at St Peters by Presbyterian 
ministers and 119 burials recorded for Catholics but performed by 
'friends' rather than a Catholic priest. 
 
There was obviously no Presbyterian nor Catholic parishes in Maitland 
at this time and as a result the Rev.John H Garven - Presbyterian Minister, 
is recorded as performing 13 burials and the Rev. John Gregor - 
Presbyterian Minister as performing a further nine and there were 
119 burials of Roman Catholics performed by 'friends' there being 
no Catholic clergyman available at all at the time, although when the 
Reverend Fathers James Watkins and Christopher Dowling arrived at St 
Josephs from 1835 many of these burials were re-transcribed in that 
parish's register creating many duplicate burial entries. 
 
Added to which on three occasions no clergyman at all was recorded.
 
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.
 
Ages at Death ranged from two days for Anne Turner to at the other 
end of the scale, where some of the ages are quite fanciful, William 
O'Donnell is recorded as 102 but with no colloborating evidence and 
First Fleeter Joseph Trimbey is recorded as 89 but if his age on the 
indent is correct he was more likely on 76. There were 20 adults whose 
exact age was not recorded and eight others where no indication of age 
was given at all.
 
The number of infants who did not live past their fifth birthday was 129 
or 29% of all burials.
 
Despite extensive research the identity of the deceased at St Peters 
has only been discovered in 244 (or 55% of) cases during this decade.
 
Tragically John Harrison and his wife Catherine were brutally murdered 
on the 31st December 1840 and though not buried until the 2nd January 
1841 are included in this list.
 
In an amazing coincidence there were two John Barkers both dying aged 24 
years and both dying in 1838 but arriving upon different ships, one buried 
at St Peters East Maitland and other at Christ Church Newcastle. And in 
a second instance involving the same two churches, two William Paynes died 
in the same year with just one years difference in ages.
 
There were six burials 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 burials.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry 
in the original source document. The reference numbers for St Peters run 
sequentially from the previous decade from 0012 to 0334 at the end of the 
1838, then re-initialized with the arrival of the new government forms 
to B001 and concluded at the end of the decade at B122.
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the 
name would be made on List 5 using code "SPEM" 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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