Thanks for the help. My ancestor was Ellen Jane Pyne born about 1839 in Exeter. Her father was William Pyne a wool comber and her mother was Jane Gift, a charwoman, so dirt poor. Ellen Jane had 4 children none of whom had a father's name on their birth certificates. The first one was Henry Thomas Gift Pyne 1860-1904. The second Mary Ellen Jane Gift Pyne 1865-1907. Third Walter Douglas Smith Pyne, my grandfather, 1874-1940, and the last one Charles Edward Pyne 1880-1963. I have a feeling that she must have run a brothel and was determined that her children would have a better life than her, and could read and write which was certainly the case with my grandfather. He was the only child to have offspring. I'm just curious as to whether she took any of the fathers to court for help with maintenence.