BURIALS - ST PHILLIPS SYDNEY

 
 
There were 1,786 burials performed at St Phillips during this decade, 
450 more than for the previous decade. There were on average fifteen 
burials every month. 
 
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
 
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.
 
The Rev.William Cowper continued as resident chaplain throughout the 
decade. In fact he remained at St Phillips until his death in 1858 when 
the parish was taken over by his son, Rev. William Macquarie Cowper jnr. 
He performed all the burials up until 1838 when Reverends Thomas Steele 
and George Napoleon Woodd performed a couple. In 1839 Reverends E A 
Dickinson, Edward Rogers, William Horatio Walsh, Robert Thornton & George 
Napoleon Woodd all performed a couple. The in 1840 suddenly he performed 
only 49 of the 134 burials that year, enlisting the assistance of 
the Reverends; Robert Allwood, R J Bolton, John Elder (Australia's second 
native born minister), W W Simpson and William Horatio Walsh. 
 
St Phillips was a particularly busy parish because firstly it was 
responsible, along with St James, for the burials of deaths occurring 
at Sydney Hospital and secondly bacause it serviced nearly all the burials 
which happened on board ships for mariners and others arriving at Sydney 
Cove.
 
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. Unfortunately at St Phillips the ship of arrival was only 
recorded for serving convicts and then mainly for convicts dying 
in the Sydney hospital. 
 
Only the 'Name of the Ship' was ever recorded so the year of arrival 
of the ships is a valued added feature from personal research. In far 
too many instances, no person could be found on the indent of the nominated 
ship, so in these instances the 'Year of Arrival' column is left blank.
 
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. This change made the identification 
of the deceased all the more difficult. The year and ship of arrival 
have been heavily researched on material outside the parish register.
 
The 'Ship of Arrival' column was replaced by a 'Date of Death' column,
thus making identification much more difficult. 
 
For the colonial born their year of birth and parents names are recorded 
in the 'Ship of Arrival' column.
 
In 1839 rather then just 'Sydney' being the abode of nearly all the 
deceased, Rev. Cowper now began to regularly record the street name 
as well. Unfortunately this only lasted until May 1840 when 'Sydney' was 
generally reverted to.
 
Ages at Death ranged from Alfred Austen and Mary Orchard who both only lived 
one day to, at the other end of life's scale, where some of the ages 
are quite fanciful, people seemed to like exaggerating the age of 
the elderly. For example Ann Inch is recorded as 104 years when in 
fact she was closer to 83 and Thomas Spencer was supposed to be 99 years 
(unfortunately his age is not recorded on the ships indent nor anywhere 
else).
 
Infant mortality was very high during this decade with 547 infants 
(31% of all deaths) not living past their fifth birthday. 
 
Despite extensive research the identity of the deceased at St Phillips 
has only been discovered in 722 (or 40% of) cases during this decade.
 
The burial of Joseph Turner in 1840 is recorded twice, once at St Phillips 
and once at St Lawrences although the latter records his abode and 
occupation whilst the former does not plus there is one years difference 
in his age. Interestingly Rev.William Walsh who normally officiated at 
St Lawrence's was "filling in" at St Phillips at that time and may have 
inadvertedly confused where he had performed the burial.
 
In 1838 there were several burials from the 'Lunatic Asylum' but it is 
not specified whether these were from the Liverpool Asylum which was being 
closed down in that year or from the new Tarban Creek (Gladesville) Asylum 
which was being opened around that time.
 
There were seven 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 Phillips continued from the previous decade 
starting at 9-0587 and run until 9-1135 at the end of 1834. Re-initialized 
in 1835 the numbers run from 10-0001 to 10-0949. Again re-initialized 
in 1839 the numbers run from 11-0001 concluding with 11-0283 by the 
end of the decade. The new-born Elizabeth Martyn who was born in late 
December 1840 was not buried until the 1st January 1841 (with the reference 
number 11-0284).
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the 
name would be made on List 5 using the code "SPS" from which the date 
of burial would be retrieved, secondly using the appropriate date, the 
death would then be located on this list.

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