Introduction to the archive
St John's Anglican Church was the first protestant church founded in Argentina. Almost as soon as the first chaplain arrived, there were weddings to be taken, not to mention baptisms and funerals. In the early years, the Rev. John Armstrong was also called on by members of the Presbyterian, the American Methodist and the German Lutheran Churches to marry, baptise and bury members of their families.

This web page, and its continuation pages, contain the data transcribed from St John's Marriage Registers Nos. 1 and 2.

Each entry has been abbreviated by a very small amount so as to fit the whole into a table with the width of 900 pixels.

Abbreviations
There is only one principal set of abbreviations, that relating to the condition of each person marrying. Readers can assume that all the men were bachelors, and all the women were spinsters, that is, they had never been previously married. The exceptions are those people with a (W) following their name, signifying that they were either a widower or widow.

Additional information, 1849-75
Some of the marriages during this period are listed on the Declarations web pages. These were the weddings of which the legal preliminaries were made at the British Consulate. In most of the declarations the age of the contracting parties has been recorded.

Marriages before 1825
A small number of protestant marriages are known to have taken place in Buenos Aires before the commencement of the marriage register in 1825. For more details about these early marriages click here.

Marriages between 1824 and the arrival of the first Anglican chaplain
St John's Marriage Register No. 1 lists five marriages taking place before the arrival of the Rev. John Armstrong. The register contains details of only the first three. These were conducted by the chaplain of the British Navy ship H.M.S. Briton, at that time stationed in the waters of the Río de la Plata. No further details have yet come to light about the fourth and fifth marriages, though it is most likely that they were again conducted by a visiting naval chaplain or a British Naval captain.

Marriages between August 1825 and November 1826
A total of 23 weddings took place during this period, of which we know merely the names of the two contracting parties (with one exception). The marriage register merely contains blank pages, and only the index to the volume tells us who were married and on what date. Perhaps one day at least some of the missing information might come to light.

Arrival of the first Scots minister
The story of those who were married by the Rev. John Armstrong altered early in 1829. The first Scots Church minister, the Rev. William Brown, arrived in Buenos Aires, taking charge of the Presbyterians among the British community. It was not until September 1843 that the first German Lutheran pastor arrived in. The result is that within the marriage entries listed here, there are people from many different backgrounds.

Marriages during the interruption in diplomatic relations
The Anglo-French blockade of Buenos Aires, that began in September 1845, caused an interruption in diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Rosas Government. With the closure of the British Consulate, the problem of swearing on oath before the British Consul by couples wanting to be married in St John's Church was resolved by the appointment of Patrick McLean, a local leading British citizen, who acted as Consular Agent. A total of ten couples between December 1845 and November 1847 completed their legal preliminaries in this way.

The British blockade of Buenos Aires was lifted in June 1847, though it seems that diplomatic relations were not effectively resumed until the end of the year. Subsequently, at least until September 1851, all couples wishing to have their wedding at St John's were obliged to obtain a licence to marry from the local government, contrary to the terms of the Treaty of Amity of 1825.

Spelling of Names
Occasionally there is a disagreement between the way a name is spelt in the official marriage entry and the way that person has signed it. Generally the person's signature has been used as the most authorative form of the name. The use of interrogative signs (?) note those places, especially in the case of witnesses, where the signatures are only partly legible.

A Fuller Explanation
A fuller explanation into the place and significance of the St. John's Marriage Register No. 1, with a brief history of marriage among the protestant members of the British community in Argentina at the beginning of the 19th century, will be found by going to a supplementary page.

The 228 marriages recorded in this first St John's marriage register are listed on the web page in a series of four linked sheets. They have been so divided in order to download and search them more quickly. Alternatively, researchers may find the search facility on the website opening page quicker to use. There is a link to it at the foot of this page.

Officiating Ministers
Between 1825 and 1851 the following were the officiating clergy at St John's (English) Church, Buenos Aires.
John Armstrong, Chaplain, 1825 to 1842;
William Armstrong, Assistant Chaplain 1838 to 1841 (his son);
Barton Lodge, Chaplain, 1842 to 1847;
Henry Martyn Faulkner, Chaplain 1847 to 1853.