What is a nurse child?

[*bunty*]

In a census record of one of my ancestors and his wife I found a 2 year old girl living with them with a different surname, and title as 'nurse child'. Can anyone shed some light on what this is?

[suedent]

Hi Bunty,
It's a child that has been left in their care, probably the nearest modern equivalent would be a foster-child.
Quite often, but not always, the child would be illegitimate. The couple would be paid & the mother would be free to work.

[*bunty*]

Thank you Sue |hug|.

[jeeb]

Hi Bunty,
A 'nurse child' does not signify that the child was from a poor family. Jane Austen (authoress) was born in December 1775 into a reasonably well to do Clergy family but at a few months of her age it is documented that her mother placed her in the care of a woman from a neighbouring village who 'wet nursed' her for the next 18 months.
Often a child was 'wet nursed' because the mother had become pregnant again.

Jeremy

[Peter Goodey]

"Nurse child" does not imply wet nursing.

[joette]

It can also mean that the child themselves was looking after a sick person or a child.

[Peter Goodey]

This is what the well known genealogist, Eve McLaughlin, has to say about it.

"A nurse child is a young child being brought up in the household of
someone other than the parents, normally for money, unless the couple
are relatives kindly taking in a niece's little error. Unmarried
mothers, travellers like actors, people with demanding jobs in unhealthy
areas (a pub say), or just parents of a child with health problems,
might put a child out to nurse in a more country area, with a family"

[*bunty*]

In my particular case the couple never had any children. This nurse child appeared on one census and by the next they were back to being a couple on their own again.

[granof17]

In my particular case the couple never had any children. This nurse child appeared on one census and by the next they were back to being a couple on their own again.

Probably,as I have found in some of my family research,the father/mother of said child/children has become widowed/widower,therefore creating a need to place the child elsewhere,whilst, (particularly in the case of widowers)the search began for another wife/husband to become mother/father for the child/children.

granof17