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Churchings

In December 1810, the new Governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie, issued orders that Chaplains and Assistant Chaplains keep exact Registers of Marriages, Cgristenings, Churching of Women and Funerals which they performed and to make a correct Return thereof once in every Quarter to the Secretary's Office at Sydney. The said Registers were required to contain the Marriages, Christenings, Churchings and Funerals as of all convicts and prisoners as wel as of free persons.

Until recently I was unaware that Churching existed! I was transcribing some births and baptisms on Reel 5002 at WFHG, when Churchings appeared. I asked Marilyn who was on duty that day, what they were and she enlightened me, although she was unaware at the time, that any had taken place in Australia. This led me to do some research when I got home :
churched, church-ing, church-es
To conduct a church service for, especially to perform a religious service for (a woman after childbirth)

Churching of women from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia :
In Christian tradition churching of women was the ceremony wherein a blessing was given to mothers after recovery from childbirth. The ceremony included thanksgiving for the woman's survival of childbirth and was performed even when the child had been stillborn or died unbaptised. Although the ceremony itself contains no elements of purification , it has been attributed to Leviticus 12 2:8, where women are declared unclean after birth. It was formerly regarded as unlucky for a woman to leave her house to go out at all after confinement till she went to be churched.
From the Australian Dictionary of Biography :

Reverend Richard Johnson soon became one of the busiest men in the colony. Aoart from some help after 1791 from James Bain, chaplain to the New South Wales Corps, he carried out all the clerical duties of the colony for six years. He held services, either in the open air or in a store-house, at Sydney and Parramatta, performed the occasional offices of the Church - baptisms, marriages, churchings, burials - attended the execution of condemned men and worked hard among the convicts.
My ancestors, Ann Griffin and Thomas Bates were married at St Philip's Anglican Church, Sydney by the Reverend Richard Johnson, on 12 May 1800 and had their eight children Baptised or Christened (depending on the Minister's Register) at St Philip's although I could only find the three Churchings listed below :

• William Bates, Son, 27 September 1812, baptised the same day;
• James Bates, Son, 10 October 1814, baptised 26 February 1815;
• Ann Bates, Daughter, 25 May 1817, baptised the same day

Interestingly, I also found the baptism entry for Macquarie and Elizabeth's son, also Lachlan, on the same reel 5002 :
314. Lachlan, Son of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales and Elizabeth Henrietta, his Wife, born at Sydney, Monday 28 March 1814, privately Baptised 18 April and publicly Christened 1 May 1814.
And also :-
315. William Macquarie, son of Lt-Colonel George Molle, Lt-Governor of New South Wales and Catherine, his wife, born at sea 24 December 1813, privately Baptised 14 February and publicly Christened 1 May 1814.

From 'Australian Dictionary of Biography'
Undoubtedly the high moment of Macquarie's stay in the colony and perhaps of his life, was the birth on 28 March 1814, following six miscarriages, of his son, whom he allowed Elizabeth to name Lachlan after him. For the last decade of his life Macquarie found a happy refuge from his worries in the role of doting father. In a will written in Sydney in 1815 Macquarie settled the estate of Jarvisfield on his son, though providing an annuity of £300 out of it for his widow. His personal property was then valued at £22,000 but by 1824 this was probably largely illusory in view of the land market. Since Lachlan junior died childless, Macquarie's fond ambition of establishing a line of "Lairds of Jarvisville" came to nothing.
The Bates' last child, Sarah, born 1826, was the only Baptism to be recorded in a printed ledger and the first to have the father's occupation (Thomas Bates, Boatbuilder) and by whom the ceremony was performed, William Cowper. William Cowper had arrived in Sydney in August 1809. He took up duties as minister for St Philip's Church, then being completed. For the first ten years of his ministry, he was the only clergyman permanently in Sydney.
Sources :
- Early Church Records of NSW;
- Wikipedia; and
- Australian Dictionary of Biography.