General Chat

I am researching a William Pitman i know his baptism was 14/07/1805. Parents names given as Baseborn Son Of Mary whot is the meaning of this.

Hi Basil,
It means that William was illegitimate.

Jan

Hi Basil.

Base born can have various meanings, but normally of unwed parents ( illegitimate ) Can also mean of humble birth, or origin.

Thanks for your help.

There were some judgemental vicars.It was not necessary to write that.

In a local parish register there is a woman who had her child baptized and the vicar put a little note next to the baptism saying that the child was purported to be her husbands but he had not been seen in seven years.

A very nasty and unnecessary remark but a little bit of gold for later genealogists.

Yes, and there were many who regularly used the word Bastard Son as well.

I also have one, John Smith, ye reput'd son of Thomas Brown and Mary Smith. This was in the 1700's He probably was too as his parents were married a few months afterwards. I found out much later that father was billeted in the army at the time of the birth.

I have seen those remarks on burials too...
eg.
Buried
George Jones, bastard infant son of Mary

Poor little scrap.
His death was no less because of his parentage.

Gwyn

I think we have to realise that these words were not used in the context that they are today - they were simply used as descriptive words, meaning that the parent's weren't married. It's only relatively recently that the word bastard was used as a nasty way of describing someone.

Kath. x