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Bastardy Courts

Posted by Margaret on 11/11/2024, 11:06 am

Can anyone tell me how to access records of bastardy courts in Exeter. My gg had at least 4 children and none of them had a father's name on their birth certificate. She may well have run a brothel in Exeter.

Re: Bastardy Courts

Posted by Moira Mark on 27/2/2025, 12:57 am, in reply to "Bastardy Courts"

The following could be of help. Orphans, etc. were placed out.
Margaret if you had given a name, I could have checked to see if they appear on my list.

Good Luck.

Try
1696-1828
NDRO: Nat Arch
Examination in Bastardy
Reference: 3330A - 1/PO 2
Title: North Devon Record Office: Volume containing settlement and bastardy papers.
Description:
Examination in Bastardy - Charity Mitchell, mother - John Brunsten putative father 1696

Try
1818-1835 North Devon Record Office: Apprenticeship indentures (in vol)
Reference: 3330A/PO 4
1818-1835

*******************.
North Devon Record Office: Account book, with rates and casual payments
Reference: 814 A/PO 2
Title: North Devon Record Office: Account book, with rates and casual payments

Title: North Devon Record Office: Apprenticeship indentures (in vol)
Description:
(Listed as in volume)

or
Reference: 814 A/PO 1439 - 1818-1835
Title: North Devon Record Office: Ledger of parish bastards
Description:
Gives names of the putative father & mother; also how much was paid in maintenance & for what period

Re: Bastardy Courts

Posted by Judith on 14/11/2024, 11:49 am, in reply to "Bastardy Courts"

have you searched on National archives site for her name?

Re: Bastardy Courts

Posted by Karen Newman on 11/11/2024, 2:23 pm, in reply to "Bastardy Courts"

As you refer to birth certificates, I'm assuming that the children were born after Civil Registration was introduced in 1837?

The court cases may well have been reported in local newspapers, assuming that the mother did not support the children herself, or have a private arrangement with the father i.e. without asking for aid from the parish.

Re: Bastardy Courts

Posted by Margaret on 12/3/2025, 4:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Bastardy Courts"

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.

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