Having kids late in life.. what is the oldest you've seen?

[Chris Anderson]

An ancestor of mine fathered a child when he was 53 years old. His wife was 42.

Is this even plausible for the 18th century? Or is my tree probably wrong?

[groom]

Men can father children until well into their old age!  42 is quite elderly for a woman then, but not unusual, especially if it isn't a first child.

One thing to check though with elderly parents, is that there isn't an unmarried daughter and that they aren't  passing her child off as theirs to avoid people talking.

[iluleah]

I would agree completely with groom

[Chris Anderson]

They had other kids...... but 8 years ago

Hmmm maybe something fishy going on

[groom]

Was there an unmarried daughter in her late teens? 

[Chris Anderson]

Was there an unmarried daughter in her late teens? 

She was 17 and she was a his step-daughter 

[LizzieW]

My g.gran was 50 when she had her youngest son - and no he wasn't the son of her two eldest daughters as they were pregnant themselves at the same time and her younger daughters were too young to get pregnant.  In any case, unless one of g.gran's daughters had actually slept with my g.grandfather (not their father, but their stepfather) then the child really was my g.gran's child as in photos he is the spitting image of my g.grandfather.  I did actually meet my g.uncle when I was a child and all I remember is how tall and broad he was - much bigger than most men in the 1950s, by which time he would have been in his late 50s.

[Andrew Tarr]

I would think that is pretty feasible, and not enough evidence to suspect it indicates a grandchild.  Most mothers I have looked at stop breeding at about 40, but some go on a bit longer.

As an example from my wife's tree, Joseph married Jane a few days after her 21st birthday, when he was 38.  The two of them spread their ten children between 1857 and 1880, when she was 44 and he 62.  We have no reason to suspect any of the children were frauds.  Jane died in 1893 and Joseph four years later - 79 was a good age for a man who spent much of his life down a lead mine.

[groom]

Was there an unmarried daughter in her late teens? 

She was 17 and she was a his step-daughter 

A possible then. Daughter gives birth and they raise the child as their own.

You say 18th century so we are talking the 1700s, how do you know it is their child - from a baptism? If so, are you sure the child was baptised as a baby and that it wasn't a late baptism so making the child older?