The 'Old Register' Index, 1794-1824

• Record series in the index: NRS-5604
• Entries in the index: 6255

These registers were created by the Judge Advocate of New South Wales and are officially known as the Registers of Assignments and Other Legal Instruments, and later became known as the 'Old Register'. The register was proclaimed in 1802 but allowed people to register assignments and other legal instruments which dated back to 1794. The nine registers record transaction relating to land and other domestic legal matters such as affidavits, agreements, appointments of guardians and even marriage agreements and separations from 22 January 1794 to 15 May 1824.

These registers show registration number, names of parties and nature of agreement. From Register 5 more complete details of agreements are given (many in full).

In addition to land transactions, domestic legal matters were also entered. They included affidavits, agreements, appointment of guardians, arbitration bonds, assignments, bills of sale, bonds of all types, a confession, deeds of different kinds including gifts and trusts, disputes, marriage agreements and separations, a secret method of treating New Zealand flax [not disclosed], general warrants, letters or powers of attorney, sales of horses and stock, promissory notes, whaling, sealing, shipping, marques of war wills and writs of fieri facias. The latter writ was a judicial writ which commanded a Sheriff or Provost Marshal to take and sell enough property from the person who lost a law suit, to satisfy the debt owed by the judgement.

The new index includes information on the original grantee and any subsequent owners of the property where this has been included in the entry. Many entries consist of only one line, noting only the participants. The details may be as short as “Promissory Note”. Where there is scant information in the Register this may be reflected in the brevity of the entry in the index. Occasionally, several long pages of detail were given in the Register when groups of large holdings were assigned for mortgage. This has meant that only a brief summary could be entered.

Where property was sold under the Provost Marshal’s name, in earlier indexes the original owner’s name was unknown, or simply called, frustratingly for the researcher, “and others”. All “and others” names are now indexed and when indicated, cross referenced.

The order in which the new index was entered has been sequentially by volume, page, and entry number.

A note about dates

In earlier Registers it can be unclear if the single date referred to is the day that the memorial was received for registration or the date on which the memorial was agreed to between parties. Additionally, many earlier entries have are undated.

Where a date is entered in the index by the year only, it indicates that an undated entry has been estimated from the surrounding areas. These dates must be treated as possibilities only.

When both dates had been given in the Register, the date of registration has been used in the index. The date of the original agreement may have occurred the day before or years earlier.

A note about spelling

It is clear that in some cases a name has been spelt phonetically. The spelling used in the index is based on how it appeared in a particular document and referenced against the Index to the Colonial Secretary's Papers 1788-1825, which covers a similar time period. When searching the index, a thorough search should be undertaken to find alternative spellings.

A note about house numbers

Care must be taken when interpreting house numbers as they no longer related to today's numbers, due to constant renumbering. The earliest numbering was sequential by building with unoccupied land unnumbered. As unoccupied land was built upon, the numbers assigned to both sides of a street became incorrect. Eventually the area would be renunmbered to allow for the new buildings.