Hi Pamela
There was a wide range of customs, depending on the parents'
circumstances, and thier attitudes towards the pregnancy. Unless the
mother or her family were well off enough to make their own
arrangements, the parish would attempt to make the father pay an
allowance for his child. In 1800 this would probably have been
around 1 shilling 6 pence to 2 shilling per week, enough to keep the
child, but not the mother as well. She would probably have gone into
service, leaving her child with her parents, or possibly a sister, or
the parish would have put the child with foster parents. It's
difficult to tell how long after the birth this would have been, but
there's little evidence of the parish paying for the mother's keep
more than a few weeks after birth. I have come across a few
instances of the father, or his parents, taking the child at an early
stage in its life, but more commonly they might take the child at a
stage when s/he could be useful - at about 7 years. If the parish
continued to pay for the child's upkeep, then they would expect to
place it as an apprentice at around 10 years - usually farming for
boys and housewifery for girls.
Although the poor law records are a good guide to the arrangements
made in the child's early years, they don't necessarily tell us what
happened later. Information from the 1841 and 1851 censuses show
that the mother's family were much more likely to be involved in
raising the child than the father's family. But the New Poor Law,
introduced in 1834, radically curtailed the father's responsibility,
and this may have changed people's behaviour.
My research covers South Wales, from Wenvoe in east Glamorgan to
Cenarth in the west of Carmarthenshire. There is a clear difference
berween the Vale of Glamorgan parishes (eg Wenvoe, Penmark) and those
further west - the former were more generous, typically paying 3
shillings a week. As Pyle & Kenfig are not among my parishes, I
can't say which group they fell into.
I hope this helps
Best wishes
Anna
At 07:27 27/10/2012, you wrote:
I am wanting to know what the usual customs were surrounding an
illegitimate birth in the early 1800s in Glamorgan, as the child usually
took the father's name and was raised by the father's family not the
mother's.
a. When did the child go to the father's family - newborn?, after weaning?
b. Was there any contact with the mother & her family, or were those
ties broken?
I am asking because my gt-gt-grandfather John GRIFFITH(S) was the
illegitimate child of Edward GRIFFITH and Mary POWELL - baptised 9
January 1815 at Pyle & Kenfig. John was raised in the GRIFFITH family,
apparently by his grandfather Edward GRIFFITH (d. 1841 Kenfig Hill).
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