Parish Record questio

[Terri]

Talking of parish records ........... on the following page of Esher parish records on Ancestry, it clearly, or almost clearly, says "strangers bastard", or stranger of one line, and bastard on the next. I can't see who it applies to - all the names around the comment are husband-and-wives. It's the 2nd name in 1756.


https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/4790/40761_311958-00089/116032?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk% 2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fqh%3dUTZiTDKz1Au9jHcoxCgvPA%253D%2 53D%26db%3dSurreyEarly%26gss%3dsfs28_ms_db%26new%3 d1%26rank%3d1%26msT%3d1%26gskw%3desher%26MSAV%3d1% 26uidh%3dng3&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults#?imageId=40761_31195 8-00063

[Terri]

Think I've just answered myself. Just spotted the husband and wife have different surnames. Doh! Not often the father is named.

Edit - Going down the page, father is named in other illegitimate instances too. Wonder if the vicar knew, or was guessing? :d

[Phoenix]

The girl would have been interrogated. If the man were in a position to maintain the child and/or marry the woman, they would try to force him to do so.

Occasionally it is alleged that she would maliciously name an innocent party.

[Terri]

I've had to laugh - there are many "bastards" with the father named, but in the 2 "posher" village families, whose son or daughter morally fell by the wayside - it's recorded as "natural" son or daughter of ........... not a B word in sight.

[Uncle John]

I had one Scottish illegitimate birth entry, with a sidenote referring to the RCE (Register of Corrected Entries). This in turn documented the interrogation meted out to the mother and assumed father.

[HarrysMum]

My husband’s gggg grandfather had an illegitimate son. Wordsworth wrote a ballad about his mother.
The mother was referred to as “Mrs” in most articles I’ve read, although she was not married. The child took his mother’s surname and became a well respected gentleman.
Money talks. Nothing truer!

[kiterunner]

Mrs didn't necessarily mean a married woman in those days, Libby, but denoted their social class.

[Nell]

I've got a rellie listed on the census as grandson and in the occupation space it says "bastard".

Same branch of the family years later list a love-child. This is meant to be the relation to the head of the family, my gt x 2 grandfather who was a widower. I wondered why the child would have been with her father and not her mother, but later I discovered she was the love-child of one of 2 x gt grandfather's daughters and she later married the father.