Attitudes to baseborn children

[Peter Goodey]

Is there any particular reason for using the archaic 'baseborn' instead of the straightforward term 'illegitimate"?

[Guy Etchells]

Prior to the hypocrisy of the Victorian era there was no shame in having/being a bastard child.
It was common in all classes of society for children to be born out of wedlock.
In many cases the couple would marry at a later date but often they did not.
The drawback to such births was the child could not inherit land or titles or wealth of his father as a right but had to be specifically named in a will and/or testament.

In the cases of the father being already married it was not unusual for him to acknowledge and pay support for his bastard children.
In other cases the mother through the Parish Overseers or through Justices of the Peace to ensure support in the form of a Bastardy Bond.

This is where shame came into the equation.
If a person could not support their family or if they were forced to support their family they brought shame on themselves and their family.
As the years past the Victorians extended such shame to all bastard births, a stigma society is still fighting off today.
An illegitimate child was also treated differently with regards to their
parish of settlement under the poor law.
Here are a few (of around 80) terms used in Parish Registers-
bastard, base, baseborn, a by-blow, by-slip, begotten in fornication, chance begot, chance child, illegitimate, lanebegot , love-child, love-begotten, natural, misbegotten, merrily begotten, merrybegot, spurious, a scape-begotten child, whoreson, child of a harlot, child of shame.
In Latin there are filius nullius (son of none), filius populi (son of the people), filius meretricis (son of a prostitute), filia vulgi.
Take care when reading historic documents that you do not cloud the historical meaning with modern views.

Noting a person as a bastard gave the child rights under the poor law system.
Instead of having to take his father’s parish of settlement the bastard child would gain settlement in the parish of his/her birth.

Incidentally bastard stems from bast, bastart, bastum – packsaddle an important piece of equipment for a medieval traveller.

The other "more sympathetic phrases" as some put it are in fact often far
more derogatory.
Illegitimate (not commonly used until the 18th century) - unlawful, illegal or forbidden.

Cheers
Guy

[Peter Goodey]

The vicar and local church officials were likely to be rate payers and would not be happy about another illegitimate child who would be more likely than a legitimate child to require financial support. It may be interesting to bear in mind the attitude of some elements of today's press towards benefit recipients.

[thewideeyedowl]

Picking up a couple of points:

#11 My merrily-begotten great-great-aunt Amelia was noted as 'illegitimate' in the parish register transcription.

#12 Many thanks for the info here about the potential problems with inheritance:
"In many cases the couple would marry at a later date but often they did not.
The drawback to such births was the child could not inherit land or titles or wealth of his father as a right but had to be specifically named in a will and/or testament."

This explains why so much (about a quarter?) of my gg-grandfather's will is about 'my daughter Amelia'. He stipulates what she should inherit if she has not married at the time of his death, and what she should inherit if she is already married. He also stipulates that his three surviving sons must take care of Amelia, if she is not married, and always care for their mother.

A few years ago, I was able to read the Will, which was made in 1865, four years before my gg-grandfather died but - stupidly - did not photograph it. Its present custodian is now very old and becoming frail, so it is inappropriate to fuss about seeing it again now.

Owl