- Parish Poor Law Overseers usually tried to establish the name of the
father of an illegitimate child so that he could be made to pay weekly amounts
to the mother and thus spare the Roor Rate funds. The matter was dealt
with by the issue of a Bastardy Bond. Many cases are mentioned in Quarter
Session records
- Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, mothers of illegitimate
children could apply to the Petty Sessions for a Bastardy Order against the
father.
- When an illegitimate child was registered (after 1 July 1837) the
father's name was normally omitted
- The term 'illegitimate' was not used in parish registers until the
18th century, although the Latin illegitima may sometimes be found
- A 'natural and lawful son' also appeared in Latin as filius naturalis
et legitimus.
Many other terms were used for illegitimacy:
Bantling
Base
Base-born
Bastardus
Begotten in adultery
Begotten in fornication
Born extra
By-blow
By-chip
By-scrape
By-slip |
Chance begot
Child of shame
Love begot
Lovechild
Merrybegot
Misbegotten
Scape-begotten
Spuriosus
Whoreson |
So far we have found only one record of a Bastardy Bond issued to a Springthorpe
woman -- see below. |
