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Women tried for Bastardly??

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  • Women tried for Bastardly??

    just been googling and found a woman who may be in my tree being sentenced for Bastardly 3 months then a year didnt realise this happened ? was it common ? thanks

  • #2
    Yes, I found exactly the same thing recently, and was also surprised, but apparently it was quite common.

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    • #3
      I also have one & another got a year for 'lewdness'.
      Glen

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      • #4
        Not sure when the offence of bastardy was abolished for women - around the 1830s, I think.

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        • #5
          Yes, both men and women could be tried and imprisoned for Bastardy - but guess who most often was, lol.

          I think it fell out of favour after the Union Poor Law Act was passed (1835) because it was then no longer the responsibility of the parish to support everyone born there.

          It wasn't primarily the immorality of bastardy which bothered the parish officials, it was a determination to find out who was personally responsible for the financial burden of the child.

          OC

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          • #6
            I think most female cases were when the pregnant mum wouldn't state who the father was. (This made her a financial burden on the residents of the parish where she lived.)

            Jay
            Janet in Yorkshire



            Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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            • #7
              I remember seeing one, cannot remember where now, which sent both man and woman to prison for

              "The offence of bastardy and refusing to marry"

              OC

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              • #8
                thanks everyone you learn something new every day ?? well I do .
                So who looked after the baby while she was in prison then ???

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                • #9
                  I expect the family rallied round. The baby's grandparents, usually. I suppose they'd need to find a wet nurse, though.

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                  • #10
                    Sometimes the women took their babies with them to prison, other times they were left in the Poor House, or farmed out to a wet nurse.

                    If a woman had friends, and had her wits about her, then the baby could be brought to her in prison to feed.

                    It was all a bit daft, really. Reading between the lines (which may only exist in my imagination, lol) it was only the flagrantly immoral or brazen married woman who were picked on, more for their civil disobedience than anything else. And possibly a pert refusal to name the father would inflame the local worthies who took themselves perhaps a little too seriously.

                    OC

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                    • #11
                      Thanks Mary and did you get your Hebrew marriages sorted out OC

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                      • #12
                        Val

                        We are waiting with bated breath for a copy of the synagogue record - we already have the civil cert but are hoping the synagogue records will give us more information.

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          you do realise its mostly in Hebrew do you??

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                          • #14
                            Val

                            It did say that some of the records are in English, but even if it is all in Hebrew, we have a Hebrew reader standing by!!

                            OC

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                            • #15
                              yes some of it is in English I got lucky and got mine translated do let me know how you get on will you ??

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