bastard settlement cases in northamptonshire

[fedupp]

 Just wondering if somone could explain the workings of the bastardy  settlement system in northamptonshire ,specificaly the weldon area  and up to which dates it was still in use . Thanks

[PrawnCocktail]

As I understand it, bastards were usually settled where they were born. Irrespective of where either father or mother were settled.

I have a settlement examination which said,
Charles Cook James of Pattishall, Labr now in Workhouse   28 Oct 1850
I am now about 25 years of age and was born at Farthinghoe in this County. My mother was then a single woman named Elizabeth James now the wife of Hugh Ashby of Astcote Pattishall, shoemaker. My Mother belonged to Pattishall. I was about 12 months old when my Mother came to reside at Astcote. She was in service at Farthinghoe.
Result: deemed to be settled at Farthinghoe.

Workhouses were still trying to work out which parishes people were chargeable to into the 20th century.

[fedupp]

Prawn coctail thank you for that .interesting. .. Even .into the 20th century !!

[PrawnCocktail]

The reason they were still using the system, was money.

Each parish was responsible for setting its own rates, and contributing to the ongoing costs of the Workhouse. So most of the paupers were still allocated to their parish, to know what the parish's share of the incoming rates should be. Workhouses were transferred to the County Councils by the Local Government Act of 1929, but the last ones weren't closed until the 1948 National Assistance Act, although most of them by then were either used for the elderly or children.

Even as late as 1973, I was taken into an old people's home while on a work placement, which was in an old Workhouse, where the elderly just had a cubicle in a dormitory, and a chest of drawers and a wardrobe opposite their beds. Even though it was brightly painted, and the staff had done their best to make it look nice, it still sticks in my mind with horror.

If you ever get to see the Workhouse admission books, you will find them arranged by parish, with the paupers listed under their parish with the exact number of days they were in the workhouse recorded each week

[fedupp]

Prawn cocktail Thanks. .... I remember, When I was young and my grans health was deteriorating rapidly, she had to be taken to a  Geriatric ward which was independent of the local hospital .  This building was a former workhouse , the older generation still called it the workhouse . I'll never forget the look of fear on her face as she was taken away .as in the case you mentioned ,the sttaff tried their best....but... it was still...in her mind... the workhouse . .thankfully ,her time was near, her stay was a short one !!
   

[fedupp]

What about a villiage like weldon ,they wouldn't have had a workhouse as we would know it ,as in a larger town ? So when one sees a census where somone is noted as" on the parish" would they stay in their home and the rent then would be paid by the parish ? Thanks

[KGarrad]

The parishes of Great Weldon and Little Weldon were constituents of first, the Oundle Poor Law Union, then (from 1896) the Kettering Poor Law Union (which administered the Poor Laws, including Bastardy Orders).

There is info on the Workhouses on the excellent Workouses.org.uk website:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Kettering/
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Oundle/

There is loads of info on that site as the history of Poor Law Unions, and the Poor Laws themselves.

[fedupp]

KGarrad. Thanks for that . Should make for interesting reading.
 Could you tell me ..if there was an illigitimate birth. Have you heard of the child having one of its forenames being named after the surname of the father eventhough there is no father named on church baptism or civil birth cert. ?
 Thanks

[KGarrad]

Oh yes!
I was doing a friend's tree; Isle of Man based family.

His grandmother never married, and all her children took her surname of Christian.
They all had a final "forename" of Conway! All 6 of them!

I even looked at the Parish Registers (the actual book), found all the baptisms, and still no father mentioned.