Committed to the house of correction for one year for being a lewd woman, 1832.

[Romilly]

I think that the term was often used, (albeit unfairly) for women who had children out of wedlock.

It might have been the case that the man was unable to marry as still married to someone else. Divorce was often impossible for ordinary people...

My GreatGrandmother never married, but had (at least) four children. They were all registered under their father's name, and she called herself by his name too. And if you think about it, - when you register a child's birth, nobody asks for proof of a marriage! (And she died as his 'Widow' too).

Romilly.

[stanmapstone]

I think "lewd woman" was a euphemism for a prostitute, a woman of loose morals.

Stan

   Why would they need to use a euphemism in the first place?

My dictionary says lewd means lascivious or unchaste.     Quite different from being a prostitute.

I should have said OR a woman of loose morals, in any case I expanded on the description in my other post #3. There are many newspaper reports about Lewd Women being sent to prison.
Stan

[stanmapstone]

Frequenting Brothels. It was said that a police constable of the City of London—on receiving an
information that a man in his ward might be frequenting a brothel with lewd women (prostitutes)— might enter it and arrest the offender for a breach of the peace without a warrant, providing the man was in such company. http://www.rootschat.com/links/01hmk/

Stan

[ScouseBoy]

I think "lewd woman" was a euphemism for a prostitute, a woman of loose morals.

Stan

   Why is it that a Victorian attitude to morals  still persists to this day?

[Ruskie]

I think "lewd woman" was a euphemism for a prostitute, a woman of loose morals.

Stan

   Why is it that a Victorian attitude to morals  still persists to this day?

That is probably a question that only you can answer Scouseboy. 

[ScouseBoy]

I think "lewd woman" was a euphemism for a prostitute, a woman of loose morals.

Stan

  Possibly it was,  at one time in the 19th century.

I think that prostitute is different from a "woman of loose morals".   There can be circumstances when they are similar,   but equally a woman could be one  without being the other.   

[Ruskie]

I think "lewd woman" was a euphemism for a prostitute, a woman of loose morals.

Stan

  Possibly it was,  at one time in the 19th century.

That is the era that this event occurred in.

Different times. Different terminologies used. 

[hurworth]

Perhaps the newspapers were being coy about it.

In 1843 her daughter is fined 2 and 6 for damaging underwood.  Would she have been foraging for firewood?

I'd had a nice cosy picture of rural English life for this family until I found them in the newspapers.

[stanmapstone]

In 1843 her daughter is fined 2 and 6 for damaging underwood. 

This was a felony under Sections XIX and XX of the Malicious Injuries to Property Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo 4 c 30) and later under section 22 of the Malicious Damage Act 1861.

Stan