Carolyn
A bastardy Order is the equivalent of a modern child maintenance order.
Back in the late 18th /early 19th century in England under the old poor laws everything relating to what we would now call "Social Services" revolved around the parish, each parish being responsible for its own poor.
Almost any child born to a single mother was a potential threat to the parish coffers and so the overseers did all they could to minimise the risk. Pressure was put on the mother to name the father, if it wasn't already common knowledge, and then the man was taken before the local magistrate; he either accepted paternity or was unable to prove he wasn't the father (no blood tests then!) and was ordered to pay x amount per week towards the child's upkeep for any time that he/she was dependent on the parish for financial help.
The one I have is pretty standard stuff; a pre-printed form with gaps for names, dates and places. My gt gt gt grandmother Mary Harris was delivered of a male bastard child in the parish of Cranbrook on 17th May 1824. She said on oath that the father was George Roots of Biddenden (the next parish), and he could not show any sufficient cause as to why he should not be adjudged the father. So, for the better relief of the parish of Cranbrook he was ordered, on 1st July 1824, to pay four pounds and four shillings towards the costs of Mary's lying-in and maintenance of the child up to that date, and he was also fined ten shillings and six pence for the costs of apprehending and securing him. Further he was ordered to pay two shillings and sixpence per week for each week that the child was dependent on the paris, and Mary six pence per week should she not be nursing and caring for the child herself.
I have no idea as to how much George Roots actually paid towards the child's maintenance, though I believe the amounts were the usual 'going-rate' for the time. In November 1824 the baby was baptized at Frittenden (another nearby parish) as George Roots, baseborn son of Mary harris, servant. In January 1825 Mary was married to John Bowles and went on to have a further six sons before her early death in 1839. The baby grew up with his younger half-brothers, and took on the step-father's surname of Bowles, so it's unlikely that the maintenance payments were made for very long.
It took a lot of digging to find that Bastardy order. Gt gt grandfather, George Roots Harris Bowles was always the weak link in my family tree, but now having found the proof that John Bowles was not his biological father I had to chop off the longest branch of the tree, and now I'm looking for my Roots!
Brenda
On 5 Jul 2004, at 00:58, Carolyn Hastings wrote:
Wow! Could you please tell, what is a "Bastardy Order"?
Brenda http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/paternoster/
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