Cecil Humphery-Smith, OBE, FSA, Principal of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, in the book ROYAL BASTARDS, previously posted on this month, explains the concept of BASTARDY...
This part of the book is the best part, because you're possibly going to research for your own, less than royal, family and ask yourself WHAT DOES IT MEAN.
Here are my notes.
Humphery-Smith states that who was regarded as illegitimate varied from time to time.
A child born of an annulled marriage or before his parents married might not be considered so.
(I think of the children of some of the Princes and Princesses of Monaco present day...)
Most European countries considered illegitimate children to be outlaws and where Roman law was, these children had no inheritance rights. The mother would be given rights but the father would have no legal obligation to support them. There was a stigma and through all classes of people, including the agricultural an laboring. The concern was that the people involved were Vagrants.
"That the church took a dim view of illegitimacy is obvious from the number of records of penances inflicted by the ecclesiastical courts for the incontinence of parents...." (Apparently there are records of penances and punishments to the parents for fornication and adultery.)
In 1610 a woman who had an illegitimate child went to the House of Corrections.
Laws against illegitimate children encouraged infanticide and abortion.
But by the 16th century more bastards are mentioned in church books and from the 1750's forwards it seems that the occurrence was becoming more common, and of less commentary.
"Knobstick weddings" were a means of forcing couples to marry even if they had no homes.
By the Acts of 1732/3 a woman had to declare who the father was. Public whipping of the woman was done. (One would wonder if this was meant to induce abortion!) As a result women were desperate to name a father and would sometimes name a wealthy man who was not the father, so that she'd have a better chance of gaining support for the child. Sometimes the woman would say the father was from another parish or district, making him hard to find. People bribed others to call the child legitimate.
The children were not well off. There are stories of children becoming slaves on farms, servants or whipping boys.
Of concern then, and now, is who supports the child of a parent or parents with no income. What happens to the social order, the responsibilities of family?
