Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Preface
- EDITOR'S PREFACE
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY: POOR RELIEF IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE BEFORE 1597
- CHAPTER II POOR RELIEF IN CAMBRIDGE DURING THE FIRST PART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
- CHAPTER III POOR RELIEF IN WISBECH DURING THE FIRST PART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
- CHAPTER IV POOR LAW ADMINISTRATION IN THE RURAL AREAS DURING THE FIRST PART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
- CHAPTER V WAGE PROBLEMS. THE PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT OF THE POOR. FIRST PHASE OF THE MOVEMENT
- CHAPTER VI HOUSING PROBLEMS AND PAUPER LABOUR IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. THE ISLE OF ELY AND THE STATUTE OF 1723
- CHAPTER VII THE WORKHOUSE MOVEMENT IN THE TOWNS OF CAMBRIDGE AND ROYSTON, 1723–1785
- CHAPTER VIII THE WORKHOUSE MOVEMENT IN RURAL CAMBRIDGESHIRE, 1723–1785
- CHAPTER IX THE URBAN WORKHOUSES OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE, 1785–1834
- CHAPTER X THE RURAL WORKHOUSES OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE, 1785–1834. PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS OF 1804 AND 1834
- CHAPTER XI SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL, 1660–1834
- CHAPTER XII PAUPER APPRENTICESHIP
- CHAPTER XIII BASTARDY
- CHAPTER XIV RELIEF OUTSIDE THE WORKHOUSE, 1660–1782
- CHAPTER XV RELIEF OUTSIDE THE WORKHOUSE, 1782–1834
- CHAPTER XVI CONSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL POLICY
- CHAPTER XVII CONCLUSIONS
- APPENDIX
- MS. Sources and Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Index of Places
- Index of Special Subjects
- Plate section
CHAPTER XIII - BASTARDY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Preface
- EDITOR'S PREFACE
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY: POOR RELIEF IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE BEFORE 1597
- CHAPTER II POOR RELIEF IN CAMBRIDGE DURING THE FIRST PART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
- CHAPTER III POOR RELIEF IN WISBECH DURING THE FIRST PART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
- CHAPTER IV POOR LAW ADMINISTRATION IN THE RURAL AREAS DURING THE FIRST PART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
- CHAPTER V WAGE PROBLEMS. THE PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT OF THE POOR. FIRST PHASE OF THE MOVEMENT
- CHAPTER VI HOUSING PROBLEMS AND PAUPER LABOUR IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. THE ISLE OF ELY AND THE STATUTE OF 1723
- CHAPTER VII THE WORKHOUSE MOVEMENT IN THE TOWNS OF CAMBRIDGE AND ROYSTON, 1723–1785
- CHAPTER VIII THE WORKHOUSE MOVEMENT IN RURAL CAMBRIDGESHIRE, 1723–1785
- CHAPTER IX THE URBAN WORKHOUSES OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE, 1785–1834
- CHAPTER X THE RURAL WORKHOUSES OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE, 1785–1834. PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS OF 1804 AND 1834
- CHAPTER XI SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL, 1660–1834
- CHAPTER XII PAUPER APPRENTICESHIP
- CHAPTER XIII BASTARDY
- CHAPTER XIV RELIEF OUTSIDE THE WORKHOUSE, 1660–1782
- CHAPTER XV RELIEF OUTSIDE THE WORKHOUSE, 1782–1834
- CHAPTER XVI CONSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL POLICY
- CHAPTER XVII CONCLUSIONS
- APPENDIX
- MS. Sources and Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Index of Places
- Index of Special Subjects
- Plate section
Summary
SETTLEMENT POLICY AND BASTARDY LEGISLATION
A large family was a menace to the rates. This fact lay behind the drastic removals of married men endeavouring to settle in a new parish, and accounted also for the attempts made in some localities to curtail housing accommodation. A marked increase in immorality was in part the natural result of such frustration of the legitimate desire for a normal married life. The only remedies of the age were jeremiads against “the vice and idleness of this present time”, combined with brutal efforts to pass on the ever-increasing burden of illegitimate children to some other parish. Since the place of settlement of a bastard was primarily that of birth, the first glimpse of a pregnant single woman, however precarious her condition, was enough to bestir the overseer to marshal for the fray every weapon which either law or fraudulent ingenuity could devise to get the woman beyond the confines of his parish; or, should he fail in this, to pursue the putative father with the utmost vigilance. The exceeding frequency with which unpleasant entries occur in both constables‘ and overseers’ accounts of this county shows how serious were the obstacles placed in the path of normal marriage.
In June 1721 the overseer of St Botolph's, Cambridge, “paid to Doll Carter, she being near her time, £2.17s. 6d. by which we got ridd of her”—an entry which seems well classified under the heading “Extronardy Disbustments”!
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- Treatment of Poverty in Cambridgeshire, 1597–1834 , pp. 165 - 176Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1934