BAPTISMS - ST PETERS RICHMOND

 
 
There were 440 baptisms performed at St Peters Richmond during the 
decade, although 28 refer to children born before 1831, plus 17 performed 
after 1840 for children born between the years 1831 and 1840, this amounts 
to almost twice as many as 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, all 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.
 
Yvonne Browning's"St Peters Richmond, The Early People and Burials, 
1791 - 1855" 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 as incumbent from the previous decade 
until 1833 when Rev.Heny Tarlton Stiles took over for the remainder of 
the decade. Occasional baptisms were performed during the decade by the 
Reverends: Robert Cartwright, John Elder, Robert Forest, Thomas Hassall, 
John Espey Keane, Samuel Marsden - senior chaplain, William Simpson - Wesleyan 
missionary, Richard Taylor MA - chaplain at Liverpool, John Troughton, Arthur W Wallis, 
William Yates.
 
Note that Kurrajong was spelt with a "C" at this time.
 
With regard to the fathers 87% have been identified.
 
One hundred and eighty six were colonial born plus 31 were childhood arrivals,
combined making up 46% of the total; 176 were convicts or former convicts (39%) 
and seven arrived free in the colony (2%).
 
With regard to the mothers 86% have been identified.
 
Three hundred and four were colonial born plus 43 were childhood arrivals,
combined making up 75% of the total; 35 were convicts or former convicts (8%) and
12 arrived free in the colony (3%).
 
Assuming listing the mother's surname indicates she was not married to 
the child's father, fifty (11%) of the births were illegitimate.
 
Richmond, 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 ten 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 0357 and run to 0795 by the end of the decade. Number 0500 appears to be
duplicate of 0370.
 
Entries on this list have the reference identifier "SPR" 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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