Westbourne Bastards

“The Bastards of Westbourne” relates to the days when a parish was responsible for its own poor and thus illegitimacy caused great concern to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor. Various laws were passed for the regulation of bastardy, and documents developed to enable individual cases to be processed in accordance with these laws. It may appear surprisingly up-to-date that fathers could be committed by “ Bastardy Bond” (later “ Bastardy Order”) to support their illegitimate child and other procedures for “ Bastardy Examinations” (of the mother) and “Removal Orders” (to remove a pregnant single mother) existed. The latter in particular was designed to move financial responsibility out of the parish.

This booklet demonstrates the use of these documents using actual historical examples and produces lists of available documents and a listing of illegitimate children and their parents, as can be found.

WESTBOURNE BASTARDS