Sarah Rebecca Gregory born Dublin abt 1814

[mckha489]

Are baptism records for St Mary’s (C of I) Dublin available anywhere?


I am trying to find a baptism, siblings and further details of parents for

Sarah Rebecca GREGORY who m Thomas William DOWNES
18 October 1836, Hornsey Rise, Islington, Middlesex.   


Witnesses William GREGORY & Ann GREGORY

1841 Sarah & Thomas DOWNES are in Islington.  she is said to be 25.   born about 1816 +/-

1851 ditto in Thanet, Kent,  she is indexed as 57 on Ancestry but is 37.   so b about 1814 in Dublin.

They emigrate to NZ

I have just received her death certificate which says

she was 66 (on 3rd March 1880).   so born  c 1814
father William GREGORY
mother Hannah GREGORY formerly SMITH
occupation of Father ‘Clergyman Church of England”
Where born Dublin

There is a marriage of a William Gregory and Hannah Smith 3 Aug 1788, St Dunstan and All Saints Stepney.   - Seems rather a long time before 1814, but I suppose if Sarah Rebecca was the last child….

I cannot find any baptisms to this couple.  Except PERHAPS one of George born 1801 baptised in  1808 at St Clement Danes, Westminster..  why is it the minute you post a query the search engines start working!  Am just collating a few baptisms

In 1814 there is one newspaper mention of a Rev William Gregory curate St Mary’s Dublin.
That’s all I can find.

The fact he is referred to as a Church of England Clergyman suggests to me he may have only been in Dublin for a short time.

I don’t believe he can be the Rev William Gregory son of the Hon. William Gregory who features in the papers frequently. I don’t  think the dates work, but would be glad to be proved wrong!

Sarah Rebecca and Thomas William  Downes children are


   Sarah Harriet (1837–1914)
   Thomas William (1838–1909)
   Mary Theresa (1841–1874)
   Selina Rebecca (1843–1883)
   Emily Louisa (1845–1918)
   Frederick George (1847–1892)
   Alice Louisa (1850–1870)
   Ada Helena (1852–1873)
   Walter Gregory (1855–1931)

[shanreagh]

Re the ref to a Church of England clergyman.  If she died in NZ then it would be quite usual for a father's occupation to be rendered that way, unlikely that whoever registered the death would have been aware of the ins and outs of how the name of this church ie Anglican, CoE is rendered in Ireland. 

[wivenhoe]

SMH  19 Mar 1940  p5  c2
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17654635?
... a harp, taken to New Zealand by Mrs. Sarah Rebecca DOWNES, who arrived with her husband in the barque John McVicar in 1856.

Sarah Rebecca DOWNES has several daughters, each with two given names. You might expect to see one daughter given the name Hannah, after maternal grandmother?.

Who is the informant for this death certificate?

[mckha489]

Well, thank you for the Harp article.  I had missed that one.

It’s hard to say who the informant is, it is provided for the certificate by the undertaker,  but they must have got it from a family member.   And yes I understand he could have been recorded as C of E  just as a way to indicate Protestant but not Presbyterian.

Yes. I am unhappy about there being no Hannah. 

The Irish William Gregory (who seems a bit posh, (but then…a Harp). Had a daughter Helena  (and the Downes had Ada Helena) but his children seem to get mentions one way or another in the papers.  Anna H, Helena, Miss Gregory, who might be Anna H, and Maria, and a son William so I would have expected Sarah’s marriage to be reported.

Also, how did she come to meet Thomas William Downes if she was from a family based in Ireland the whole time.


There is a non conformist William Gregory in Bristol.  As far as I can see he had no children.

There is a William Gregory in Canterbury. He died 1803.

There is another William Gregory at Lichfield Cathedral in 1824, but I haven’t yet figured him out.

[mckha489]

The Irish William Gregory (who seems a bit posh, (but then…a Harp). Had a daughter Helena  (and the Downes had Ada Helena) but his children seem to get mentions one way or another in the papers.  Anna H, Helena, Miss Gregory, who might be Anna H, and Maria, and a son William so I would have expected Sarah’s marriage to be reported.

He also had a daughter Selina Florinda.   She married Charles Stuart Miller in 1865

She is described as only surviving daughter.  So that rules out that particular Rev, but there must surely be a connection if he had daughters Helena and Selina .

So tantalising!

[shanreagh]

Ann/Anne/Hannah/Anna are often used interchangeably. So the witnesses to the Downes/Gregory wedding may have been her parents, William Gregory and Ann/Hannah Smith Gregory? 

Re naming of children.  Some families did not name the children for parents etc. 
I have often gone through children's names and worked out where in the wider family they may have come from - alongside the Irish naming pattern.  Have you done this?
I see a
Sarah
Thomas
Rebecca
William

If they do follow a naming pattern you would expect to have family from T W Downes to be included.  Which of the childrens' names come from his family?

[wivenhoe]

https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/

Shows probate file for Sarah Rebecca DOWNES, died Picton, 1880.

Seeing that there was a harp preserved in the family, estate for Sarah Rebecca might identify some useful items relevant to her ancestry.

[shanreagh]

deleted...got confused!

[mckha489]

https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/

Shows probate file for Sarah Rebecca DOWNES, died Picton, 1880.

Seeing that there was a harp preserved in the family, estate for Sarah Rebecca might identify some useful items relevant to her ancestry.

She left it all to one of her grand-daughters.  Selina Mary BROUGHTON.  (her father died at about the same time she was born and mother did not remarry so suspect that is why).  There is no mention of the Harp