As part of
my Postgraduate Diploma, I conducted a 5000-word project on the life chances of
illegitimate children who were baptised in the Lancashire parishes of Adlington, Chorley
St Lawrence, Coppull and Rivington. The period looked at was between 1840 and 1849, which was the
first full decade after the introduction of the New Poor Law of 1834. This study found regional differences between Lancashire and England as a whole.
Before New Poor Law
National
attitudes towards illegitimacy had hardened by the 1830s. The existing Poor Law system was deemed to encourage illegitimacy; women
were accused of purposefully getting pregnant in order to obtain the regular
income of a maintenance payment, and illegitimate children were now seen as a burden
on parish funds.
New Poor Law
In 1834, a New Poor
Law was enacted which brought drastic changes to the lives of illegitimates. It placed all
financial responsibility for raising an illegitimate child on the mother.
Should poverty occur, the workhouse was the only relief the parish would offer.
Higher illegitimacy in Lancashire compared to England
You might
expect to see a steady fall in the prevalence of illegitimacy once women realised
that ‘career motherhood’ no longer paid, but there was no such fall. As suggested by others in the field, it’s
clear that there were regional difference between Lancashire and the rest of England
The peaks might be attributable to local economic crises such as cotton famines, which were actually thought to have had an upwards effect on illegitimacy.
More than a quarter of illegitimate children died before the age of 1
Sadly, the
findings also suggest a much higher rate of infant mortality in comparison to
national figures, with over a quarter (27.5%) dying before they reached the age
of 1, in comparison to a national average of 17.36% for 1841.
Despite a lot of
noise from the press about baby farming and infanticide (the purposeful killing of a child under
the age of 12 months), this was rare; instead poverty and a lack
of childcare for working single mothers are likely to have had a key role.
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| Ladies World - September 1914 |
Financial pressure probably didn't have much impact in this area
When age upon death is plotted, these cluster in complete contrast with the financial pressure points suggested by Frost. This suggests that financial pressure had less of an impact in this area, potentially due to the availability of employment for a single mother.
Working mothers probably had a knock on effect on infant mortality
An area such
as this part of Lancashire, with numerous cotton mills who were happy to employ a single
mother, is thought to have meant more mothers re-entering the
workplace. In turn this then led to a higher rate of infant mortality due to a lack
of breastfeeding, use of artificial milks and early weaning.
It's even plausible that the availability of employment for unmarried mothers was the reason for higher Lancashire illegitimacy rates in the first place; potentially causing less of a stigma as women found it easier to support their families.
This study highlighted 408 children born illegitimate within this decade, and a sample of
69 were examined in further detail using primary sources.
Sources
- Levine, David. (1977) Family Formation in an age of nascent capitalism
- Laslett, Peter and Oosterveen, Karla. (1973) Long-Term Trends in Bastardy in England: A Study of the Illegitimacy Figures in the Parish Registers and in the Reports of the Registrar General, 1561-1960.
- King, Stephen. (2005) 'The Bastardy Prone Sub-society Again: Bastards and Their Fathers and Mothers in Lancashire, Wiltshire, and Somerset, 1800-1840.' In: Levene, Alysa, Nutt, Thomas and Williams, Samantha, eds. Illegitimacy in Britain, 1700-1920.