Chatham, St Mary the Virgin · searched 13 September 2026

Chatham

The Royal Engineers lived at Chatham, and so did this family. Nobody had ever read its register. It holds a general's burial, his wife's, his brother officer's, and a christening eight days before a convict ship sailed.

This archive has said for years that Major-General Robert D'Arcy died at Chatham in 1827 — on the authority of Connolly's Roll of Officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers, a printed book. It has said his wife Jean Ward died there in 1823, on the authority of a family tree. Neither statement had a parish record behind it.

Chatham St Mary the Virgin holds 7 D'Arcy entries. Six of them are this family.

What the register holds

Seven entries, in order

9 May 1805 Constantine D'Arcy Burial

noted in the register as “Lt in the Royal Engineers” · Parish Register

Connolly's Roll says he died at Chatham on 6 May 1805. Buried three days later, and the parish clerk knew his rank.

23 Oct 1806 Margarett Maria Isabella D'Arcy Marriage

spinster · married John Maddock JONES, Esq., bachelor, of Penybryn in the parish of Ruabon, Denbighshire · by licence · witnesses JOSEPH D'ARCY and Richd Lovett · Archdeacon's Transcript

Robert and Jean's daughter, married at twenty-five. The witness is her brother Joseph — the child baptised at Portsea in 1780.

2 Jul 1811 Frederick Robert D'Arcy Baptism

father GEORGE · mother MARY · Parish Register

Not Robert's son but George's — by his first wife. The surveyor, and the half-brother the archive has written about without a record for him.

21 Mar 1823 Jane D'Arcy Burial

AGE 66 · abode Chatham · Parish Register

Jean Ward, dead at sixty-six. An age of 66 in March 1823 puts her birth about 1756 — the tree says 1754.

29 Apr 1825 / bapt. 31 Mar 1826 Charlotte D'Arcy Baptism

father GEORGE PITT D'ARCY, “Bt: Major 39th Foot” · mother MARIA · abode Chatham · Archdeacon's Transcript

The Major himself, in a parish register, with his rank and regiment. His daughter was christened on 31 March 1826 — and the convict ship England embarked his detachment eight days later.

19 May 1827 Robert D'Arcy Burial

AGE 76 · abode Chatham · Parish Register

Major-General Robert D'Arcy, C.B. Connolly gives his death as 13 May 1827; he was buried six days later. An age of 76 puts his birth about 1750–51 — and this is the register the tree's “1751” has always come from, seen at last.

28 Dec 1839 Bridget D'Arcy Burial

age 1 · abode Chatham · Parish Register

A child, and no connection to this family has been shown. Listed because she is in the record.

The one that matters most

“Robert D'Arcy, 76, Chatham”

The family tree says Robert D'Arcy was born in 1751. This archive has spent months explaining that the 1751 is arithmetic from an age on a burial register rather than a birth record, and should not be trusted as a date. The Hornby claim →

Here is that burial register. Entry 1571, 19 May 1827: Robert D'Arcy, age 76, of Chatham. Connolly gives his death as 13 May; he was buried six days later, in the garrison town he had served for half a century.

The correction stands, and it is now a better-founded correction. An age at burial is still a stated age — supplied by whoever brought the body, rounded, and frequently wrong by several years. It is not a birth record and it never becomes one. But the archive has gone from repeating somebody's arithmetic to holding the document the arithmetic was done on, which is the whole business of this site. an age, not a birth

And it does not touch his parentage, which remains unknown. A burial names nobody but the dead.

Eight days

A christening, and then a convict ship

The entry that brings the two halves of this archive together is a baptism.

Child	Charlotte D'Arcy
Born	29 April 1825
Baptised	31 March 1826, Chatham St Mary the Virgin
Father	George Pitt D'Arcy — “Bt: Major 39th Foot”
Mother	Maria
Abode	Chatham

On 8 April 1826 — eight days later — the convict ship England embarked a detachment of the 39th Foot commanded by “George Pitt D'Arcy, B. Major”, with thirty-nine men, six women, seven children, and Mrs D'Arcy and family in the cabin. They christened the baby, and then they sailed for New South Wales. The surgeon's journal →

The rank in the parish register — Brevet Major, 39th Foot — is the same rank the ship's surgeon wrote down at sea a fortnight later. Two clerks, two countries, one man, and neither of them had ever been set beside the other. documented

And two marriages resolved

Mary, then Maria

The archive has held that George Pitt D'Arcy married twice — a Miss Ludlam about 1805, and Maria White in County Wicklow about 1819 — and that Frederick Robert D'Arcy the surveyor was a half-brother to the Australian children. The register bears that out without being asked:

Baptised	Child	Father	Mother
2 Jul 1811	Frederick Robert D'Arcy	George	Mary
31 Mar 1826	Charlotte D'Arcy	George Pitt, Bt Major 39th Foot	Maria

Two children of one man, fifteen years apart, by two differently named mothers, in the same parish. the half-brother, documented

What Chatham changes

Three deaths move from books to registers. Robert's, Jean's and Constantine's — each previously carried on a printed roll or a family tree, each now in the parish book.
Jean Ward has an age at last — sixty-six in March 1823, which puts her birth about 1756 against the tree's 1754. Her baptism is still out of reach: South Leith is not transcribed.
A daughter's marriage, witnessed by a brother. Margarett Maria Isabella married in 1806 with Joseph D'Arcy signing — the same Joseph baptised at Portsea in 1780, the first record of this family ever found in England.
And Robert D'Arcy's parentage is exactly as unknown as it was this morning. Everything found today names him as a husband, a father and a corpse. Nothing names him as a son. The will that might →