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| St John's baptism 9/4/1822 |
Whilst going through some old parish records for St Thomas Church, Heptonstall, Yorkshire I came across an unusual baptism entry for an illegitimate child called Henry Bancroft who was baptised on 9th April 1822.
The very unusual entry, and something I have not come across before, lists the “reputed” father as a John Thomas Tebbelroyd or Hebblroyd [difficult to decipher from the hand writing.] who was described as a Wadsworth weaver.
Elizabeth Bancroft, the child's mother must have been pretty sure of her facts, or was put under pressure from the authorities to actually put this on the records, bearing in mind the laws surrounding illegitimacy in those times made it difficult for the alleged father to escape the child and mother maintenance costs.
Checking further, I found no evidence of the parents marrying at a later date.
Illegitimacy has always been around in society albeit sometimes hidden, even within families. I have come across many instances where an unmarried girl, living at home with her parents, has a child which has been listed on census records as her brother or sister, and even registered in that manner in some case. The figure below shows the average illegitimacy ratio for some 98 English parishes, and after 1840 from published official statistics. It is evident that illegitimate births had been on the rise since the middle of the 17th century.
Before 1540 data is difficult to obtain, and data for the period 1835-1840 is also inaccurate as this was the transitional period from parish registers to civil registration in England. It is possible that in the early 19th century up to 30% of all births were not recorded in parish registers and in some places, especially in larger parishes, non-registration may have been even higher at around some 70%. Indeed my G/G/Grandfather, Timothy Bancroft, was born in 1840, but never officially registered, even though it was a legal requirement by this time.It seems likely that many of these unregistered births were illegitimate, so the above figures should be treated as an underestimate.
The
Bastardy Examination Board
"Bastardy
Examinations", to determine the name of the father, must have
been a very traumatic experience for any young woman, as the fear of
ending up in the local workhouse was always the ultimate threat from
the authorities for any unmarried mother and child . The examination
would take place before two Justices who inquired into the
circumstances under which the woman about to give birth to an
illegitimate child had fallen pregnant. Legally a woman who knew
herself to be likely to bear an illegitimate child was obliged to
present herself for examination, but in practice this only
occasionally happened, and examinations occurred more often after the
birth.
Bastardy Examinations were particularly keen to discover the identity
of the father, in order to force him to provide a bond, known as a
"Bastardy Bond", to indemnify the parish against the
costs of maintaining the child. Evidence
of paternity claims had to be "corroborated in some material
particular"... something that was often impossible to achieve to
the disadvantage of the poor woman being brought before the examining
committee.
Prior
to the 19th century, the Poor Laws stipulated that the putative
father was responsible for the maintenance of his illegitimate child.
If he failed to support the child, the mother could have him arrested
on a justice's warrant and put into a workhouse, or even prison until
she agreed to name the child's father. Local authorities issued
public funds to maintain the mother and her child until the father
could do so. Those public funds were to be reimbursed by the putative
father, though this rarely happened because many fled and disappeared
without trace. In an attempt to stem the rising costs of poor relief,
the local authorities quiet often attempted to reduce their liability
for illegitimate children by forcing the fathers to marry the women.
The cost of child-support expenditure could potentially
consume a significant proportion of a parish's budget. In Sowerby
Bridge, a large township in nearby Halifax, West Yorkshire,
between 25 and 38 per cent of annual expenditure on the poor was
dispensed to unmarried mothers between 1818 and 1828. If the parish
could enforce and collect maintenance payments, this could moderate
the parish's costs of child support. Under
the terms of affiliation orders, unmarried mothers in that area
typically received between 1s 6d and 2s 6d per week in the
early-nineteenth century. It is difficult to provide a contemporary
equivalence of value, although it is worth noting that in the
late-eighteenth century, a typical male agricultural labourer might
have been earning around 10s a week. Unmarried mothers would thus be
receiving as much as a quarter of a male labourer's wage.
In
the 1833 Poor Law Report, the Commission Report on Bastardy,
appointed the previous year to investigate the situation, revealed
that the Poor Laws encouraged "licentiousness
between unmarried couples". More relief
was being issued to maintain illegitimate children than to support
legitimate children. Not only were the mother and child given relief,
but costs were rising because mothers were shipped back to their
original parishes to avoid long term responsibility for their
illegitimate children. Young men, accused solely on the word of the
mother and unable to pay the surety, were, innocent or guilty, forced
into early and unsuitable marriages which the commission felt were
detrimental to the country.
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| Bastardy Examination Board |
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