Bastardy Bonds & Documents (Parish & Poor Law)
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Records generated from a number of documents relating to the issue of illegitimacy and bastardy cases mostly trying to determine the name...
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GenGuide
Nature of Source

Records generated from a number of documents relating to the issue of illegitimacy and bastardy cases mostly trying to determine the name of the bastard child’s father. A child born to unmarried parents was considered by law to be illegitimate. The range of documents, mostly deposited in the parish chest, include the Bastardy Examination, Bastardy Warrants And Summons, Bastardy Order, Maintenance Order and the Bastardy Bond.

A woman discovered pregnant outside marriage, apart from the social stigma attached to such behaviour, would probably become chargeable to the parish. If the putative father failed to admit his responsibility then the authorities acted swiftly and immediately instigated an Examination to establish the identity of the father carried out by either the Churchwarden and the Overseer of the Poor or the Quarter Sessions. These powers were of investigation were established under the Bastardy Act of 1575/6. The person was normally known to the mother and named by her during the examination.

Following the Examination, heavy pressure was exerted on the father to financially maintain the child and enter into a Bastardy Bond agreeing to pay the churchwarden and the overseers for the child’s maintenance. The terms of maintenance lasted until the child was old enough to be apprenticed out. If the supposed father resisted signing the bastardy bond, the parish officials could apply to the Justices for a filiation order which forced the father to pay for the upkeep of the child. Records of payments from the father are sometimes recorded in the Overseer of the Poor accounts or Churchwarden’s accounts.

The Bastardy/Affiliation Order was issued by the Justice of the Peace at the Petty Sessions or Quarter Sessions following an examination. The Order obliged the putative father to pay for the child’s maintenance or face a possible prison sentence. After the New Poor Law of 1834, the parish authorities lessened their role in bastardy cases leaving the woman the option of applying herself for the bond from the Petty Sessions. Local newspapers often reported on maintenance orders heard before the petty sessions or quarter sessions and on fathers who failed to pay or absconded.

The Warrant gave the order for the father to appear in court if he attempted to abscond. Where disputes over payments occurred, the case papers may be found in the Petty Sessions records, although very few records remain.

Agreements and discussions of individual cases can be found in the records of the churchwarden, parish constable, overseers of the poor and amongst the vestry papers. In many cases the father married the mother soon after the birth of the child or made private arrangements for the child’s upkeep, in which case no record will be found of his name amongst the bastardy documents. The putative father often married the mother under pressure, usually by license and sometimes paid for by the overseers. Marriage licence records provide a marriage date and other useful information. A bastard child belonged to the parish where it was born, so an expectant mother moving away from her legal place of settlement could be forcibly removed to her home parish before the birth of the child. Be aware however, that occasionally the wrong man was named as the father.

It was not uncommon for a married couple to assign a family surname as a middle name. However, in the event of an unmarried mother giving the illegitimate child a surname as a middle name, this could indicate the paternity of the child. It worth looking for the will of the father of a bastard, as illegitimate children had to be acknowledged as such in the will, often described as the ‘reputed’ son. The Family Law Reform Act of 1969 gave illegitimate children equal inheritance rights.

Also see

Apprenticeship Indentures, Parish

Church/Ecclesiastical Court Records

Civil Registration, Birth including illegitimacy

Marriage Licence Records

Overseers of the Poor Accounts

Settlement Certificates/Examinations and Removal Orders

Workhouse Records (Poor Law Unions)

Online Databases

www.findmypast.co.uk (London Poor Law Abstracts, 1581-1899. Genealogical Abstracts from the City of London Parochial Poor Law Records including Bastardy/Affiliation Orders, Bastardy Bonds and Examinations as well as Quarter Sessions and Quarter Sessions Appeals. These poor law abstracts contain a complete summary of the details contained within each entry and includes all details including names and places plus incidental information such as relationships and occupations where found in the original documents. These records were compiled by genealogist Cliff Webb)

www.findmypast.co.uk (Westminster, Poor Law and Parish Administration. The database contains over 1.7 million records from the poor law and parish administration records. The records cover Parish apprentices, Bastardy bonds, Settlement examinations, Paupers outdoor relief, Land tax and valuations and Workhouse admission records)

www.findmypast.co.uk (Warwickshire Bastardy Indexes 1844-1914. Search an assortment of over 5, 000 bastardy applications, bastardy registers, bastardy return and appeals)

www.findmypast.co.uk (London Lives, Culture & Society 1680-1817. London Lives chronicles the lives of Londoners through the exploration of a variety of sources including criminal registers, session papers, ordinary’s accounts from Old Bailey, apprentice records, coroner inquests, workhouse minutes, Register of admissions to workhouse, clerks’ papers, Churchwarden’s account books, Vestry minute books/vestry minutes, Register of removal orders, Pauper examination books/examination books, bastardy bonds and much more)

www.findmypast.co.uk (Devon, Plymouth & West Devon Parish Chest Records 1556-1950. Records from the parish chests of Plymouth and West Devon including: Examinations, Jury Lists, Settlement Papers, Bastardy Papers and Overseers and Churchwardens’ Accounts)

www.findmypast.co.uk (Norfolk Parish Chest Records 1300-1990 Browse. Explore a variety of parish chest records from Norfolk spanning over 600 years including Bastardy bonds and Bastardy examinations and orders)

www.findmypast.co.uk (Norfolk Borough Records 1317-1981 Browse. Browse through a variety of Norfolk borough records including Books of bastards)

www.findmypast.co.uk (Middlesex Poor Law Records, 1699-1846. Search for your ancestors in the Poor Law records for 10 parishes in the west of the ancient county of Middlesex. This collection is published in partnership with West Middlesex Family History Society and the Family History Federation. The records include settlement examinations and removals as well as bastardy orders and bastardy bonds)

www.londonlives.org (London Lives: Settlement/Bastardy Exams, Pauper Removal Orders)

www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/bastardycases (GENUKI: Lincolnshire Poor Law Bastardy Cases extracted from the From the Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury newspaper)

www.midlandshistoricaldata.org (Warwickshire Poor Law Index)

https://homepages.rootsweb.com/~spire/Yesterday/index.htm (Yesterdays Journey, transcriptions dealing primarily with Derbyshire)

www.hunimex.com/warwick/index.html (Pickard’s Pink Pages for Warwickshire: Warwickshire bastard’s index)

www.sussexrecordsociety.org/dbs/pl (Sussex Record Society. Database of Poor Law Records for West Sussex. The records primarily consist of Settlement and Removal 1662-1835 as well as records of bastard children and of the apprenticing and boarding out of pauper children)

www.ancestry.co.uk (Dorset, England, Bastardy Records, 1821-1853. The original records are held at the Dorset History Centre)

www.ancestry.co.uk (Warwickshire Parish Poor Law, 1546-1904: Bastardy bonds produced in association with Warwickshire County Record Office)

www.ancestry.co.uk (Warwickshire, Bastardy Orders, 1816-1839 produced in association with Warwickshire County Record Office)

www.findmypast.co.uk (Lincolnshire Parish Bastardy Cases)

ww3.gloucestershire.gov.uk/genealogy/Search.aspx (Gloucestershire Archives Genealogical Search: Records of the Overseers of the Poor including settlement papers, pauper apprenticeships and bastardy documents. Also try searching for a named individual at the Gloucestershire Archives Online Catalogue which includes the General Personal Names Index and other specialist indexes)

Bath Ancestors

Register of Bastardy Orders, 1844-1885. Search lists of mothers of illegitimate children who applied for poor relief as well as the names of the supposed fathers. Expect to find the name and address of the mother, name, address and occupation of the father and the amount.

www.thekeep.info (The Keep: East Sussex Record Office: Bastardy Bonds and Examinations. Search the catalogue for listings of nearly 900 illegitimate children born to women in East Sussex between 1793 and 1834)