Hi Anne!
A Bastardy Bond was in effect a Bond of Indemnification by which a father
agrred to pay any future expenses incurred by the parish in respect of his
acknowledged illegitimate offspring. Typically he might agree to pay the
parish overseers an agreed weekly sum and also indemnify the parish officers
for any costs of maintenance for the child.
Unlike baptismal, marriage and burial records there was no formal
requirement for these details to be recorded but the most likely place to
find them would be in any possibly surviving overseers' accounts for a
parish. They might, as opposed to direct voluntary payments to the mother,
sometimes be noted in the parish registers.
These bonds were distinct from maintenance orders. An act of 1576 empowered
Justices to examine the circumstances of the birth of an illigitimate child
and order the father, by a bastardy order, to pay maintenance. These cases
would be heard by magistrates and a man accused on oath of being the father
of an illigitimate child could be committed to gaol until he provided
security to indemnify the parish against its expense.
As to the detail which you could expect to find in a Bastardy Bond, once you
get round the legal jargon in which they were couched, you would obviously
ascertain the name of the father and mother, the name and baptismal date of
the child and the amount which the father agreed to pay. Often other
fanmily family members executed the deed and joined in the obligation so you
would have their names.
Cheers
Paul
Alternative Address:
mountpleasant(a)goginan.fsbusiness.co.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Welch" <anne.welch(a)virgin.net>
To: <POWYS-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 11:04 AM
Subject: Bastardy bonds
Could someone on the list please let me know up to what date I could
expect
to find bastardy bonds. I have quite a few illegitimate children to
investigate over more than 200 years - i.e. about 1700 - 1920.
Also is anyone who has access to this information able to do a look-up for
me?
Many thanks
Anne Welch