Manchester University Press Illegitimacy in English Law and Society, 1860–1930

This book explores the legal and social consequences of growing up illegitimate in England and Wales between 1860 and 1930, a crucial transition period between Victorian respectability and Social Darwinism and the modern era of tolerance. By taking the child's point of view, rather than the mother's or the larger society's, this book offers new insights in childhood studies, social and family history, and the law. England had the harshest illegitimacy laws in Europe; a child of unwed parents was filis nullius, no one's child, and even the subsequent marriage of the parents did not legitimate their offspring. Unsurprisingly, then, the English state did a poor job of protecting these subjects, especially in the criminal courts. Nevertheless, in order to avoid supporting 'unwanted' children, the state 'found' families for them through the poor law, affiliation suits, and, in the twentieth century, more inclusive legislation. The patriarchal law system faced a dilemma in dealing with supposedly 'fatherless' children; mothers' primacy contradicted normal precedents, and mothers' inability to provide led to dire poverty. However, due to opposition in the House of Lords, Parliament made only tentative changes before the Second World War. Though Victorians disapproved of unwed mothers, most maternal relatives stood by their daughters and grandchildren, and their help was supplemented by wider kin, adopters, and fostering. The book's focus on illegitimates' experiences thus highlights the role of blended families, and the interaction between charities, the workhouse, and the poor. It also reveals the extent of the discrimination they faced in school, employment, and marriage prospects, and demonstrates the complex interaction between class and gender, as boys struggled with their status more in the upper classes, while girls did more in the lower. How much illegitimacy mattered varied enormously, but it was rarely without any effect. That so many of these children survived and even flourished was a testament to their resiliency.