attitude to illegitimacy in the eighteenth century

[Ayashi]

I have an ancestor who had an illegitimate daughter with a brother of her new sister in law, although which brother we may never know. That daughter, also my ancestor, went on to have two illegitimate children of her own before marrying. Those children baffle me a bit because my ancestor was on the Cornwall/Devon border and the reputed father was in Kent for the first child and Yorkshire for the second child. I do believe he was the father of the first though, given the evidence available.

I recently found out what happened to the eldest illegitimate child- she emigrated to Canada (no wonder I couldn't find her!) She married under her biological father's surname but every other record after that has her stepfather's surname as her maiden name. Her stepfather's Royal Marine records also name her as his first child. Oddly her younger brother never lives with the family, is not mentioned on the records and as far as I can tell is simply passed around until he settles down himself. I have no idea why.

[Andy_T]

I don't think that the eighteenth centuary attitude was that tolerant towards illegitimacy, athough whipping and making unmarried mothers do a penance by wearing a white sheet or a shroud  had largely ended by that time.
Parish registers were often unkind and illegitimate children could be described in ways that would shame and stigmatize them for life. Examples in C18 & early C19 I have found include some of the following:
The Bastatard (s) OR (d) of MOTHER'S NAME
The Base-born (s) OR (d) of MOTHER'S NAME & FATHER'S NAME
The Natural born (s) OR (d) of MOTHER'S NAME (this one is slightly kinder)
The Superfluous (s) OR (d) of MOTHER'S NAME & FATHER'S NAME

Even today's more enlightened attitudes, not everone is comfortable about illegitimacy.

Andy_T

[Andrew Tarr]

Another common (and dictionary) label was Spurious (or Spurius/Spuria in Latin).

[Maiden Stone]

Happy to be corrected,  but I have been of the understanding that in England that it was not until 1753 or thereabouts that Parliament introduced laws about marriage,  so surely without such laws there would not have been any legal definition or 'illegitimacy' concerns anyway.

Hardwicke's Marriage Act was an effort to prevent clandestine marriages.
There were legitimate and illegitimate children in English laws for centuries before then. Welsh law was different. So were Scottish and Irish laws.

[Ayashi]

Superfluous! I hadn't come across that one before lol

I was born in wedlock but the number of children nowadays born before marriage or without marriage at all would horrify some of our ancestors I'm sure.

[coombs]

In the book "My ancestor was a bastard" it asks the question as to why illegitimacy was higher in Marylebone but much lower in Bethnal Green a few miles away". Well Marylebone had many wealthy people living there, from highly paid lawyers to doctors and nobility etc who hired servants.

I suppose in the 18th century in some areas illegitimacy was seen as more common so the attitude was that it was more to be expected than other areas.

[pinefamily]

In the book "My ancestor was a bastard" it asks the question as to why illegitimacy was higher in Marylebone but much lower in Bethnal Green a few miles away". Well Marylebone had many wealthy people living there, from highly paid lawyers to doctors and nobility etc who hired servants.

I suppose in the 18th century in some areas illegitimacy was seen as more common so the attitude was that it was more to be expected than other areas.

Those poor serving girls.....

[Andrew Tarr]

I suppose in the 18th century in some areas illegitimacy was seen as more common so the attitude was that it was more to be expected than other areas.

In making this comparison between neighbourhoods one must factor in honesty towards the recorder, as well as simple philandery. 

[Guy Etchells]

We must not confuse the attitude towards poor mothers who required help to support their illegitimate child(ren) with an attitude towards illegitimacy.
In the earlier centuries if one was able to support ones illegitimate child there was no stigma, that came later during the Victorian period.

Cheers
Guy