Bastardy in Butleigh: Illegitimacy, Genealogies and the Old Poor Law in Somerset, 1762-1834 (original) (raw)
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The English Historical Review
William Tennent (1759–1832) was a successful businessman and banker, who made his mark in Belfast as one of the city’s richest men. He was also a father and, later, a husband. By the time of his marriage in March 1805, Tennent had fathered at least thirteen illegitimate children, with at least four women. The child he would have with his wife, a daughter named Letitia, would be his only legitimate heir. Through this series of illicit sexual relationships, William Tennent created a complex family unit that consisted of legitimate and illegitimate children, half-siblings, step-siblings and step-parents, all of whom were united through a network of unmarried mothers. The example of the Tennent family therefore offers historians the unique opportunity not only to extend knowledge about the making of the family in Ireland, but also to refine ideas about contemporary attitudes to illegitimacy. Using the Tennents as a case-study, this article furthers understanding of the family in Ireland...
Illegitimate parenthood in early modern Europe
The History of the Family, 2020
This special section presents new research on the ways in which unmarried parents-particularly women-negotiated illegitimacy, how they interacted with urban institutions, and what legal resources they had. Throughout the early modern period, extramarital pregnancies were an important issue of concern to urban authorities and city dwellers. In line with recent historiographic strands, the two articles in this section approach the topic of unwed motherhood from below. The articles pay particular attention to the interactions between institutions and unwed mothers, the diversity of identities of unmarried parenthood, and the agency of unwed mothers in early modern Europe. Geographically, the contributions cover evidence from cities in Italy, Germany, Holland and Switzerland. In this introduction, we contextualize the most important issues addressed in the contributions. We explain why early modern societies regarded unwed motherhood as such a serious problem and expound the concept of 'agency' in relation to illegitimacy. We then elaborate on the institutions that dealt with unmarried parenthood in early modern Europe and their possible effect on the agency of unmarried mothers. This includes the impact of changes on the treatment of illegitimacy by institutions, and the North-South divide with regard to attitudes towards unwed parenthood.
The ‘Remembered Family’ and Dynastic Senses of Identity Among the English Gentry c. 1600-1800.
Historical Research, 2019
Historians of the English gentry have tended to focus on formal genealogies as the primary means by which this group understood their past, and their status, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The later sixteenth century has been described as a time of 'genealogical mania', as new families tried to bolster their status by acquiring heraldic family trees. This paper argues that families also thought about their history in other ways, particularly by dwelling on the moral lessons, examples and warnings to be derived from the 'remembered family'. This was a much more intimate historical family, the family that could be remembered as living individuals, and whose personal stories formed an oral family history. Early modern biographers devote more attention to this 'remembered family' as the basis of their personal history and social position, than to formal exercises in genealogy and long pedigrees. The paper argues that in this respect the gentry were acting in ways similar to other social groups. The 'remembered family' did not supplant family pedigrees, but it seems to have been regarded as more reliable, and a more 'authentic' source of family-history knowledge than less personal, more formal genealogies.
Early modern English kinship in the long run: reflections on continuity and change
Continuity and Change, 2010
ABSTRACTThe article highlights the significance of alliances of blood and marriage in early modern England and beyond, including both positive and negative relations among kin. Examining different historiographical approaches, it emphasizes the role of kinship in explanations of historical change and continuity. Rather than focusing on the isolated nuclear family or, conversely, on an alleged decline of kinship, it highlights the importance of enmeshed patterns of kinship and connectedness. Such patterns were not only important in themselves (whether culturally, socially, economically, or politically), it is suggested, but they also invite new comparisons with other early modern societies, and in the long run. Even patterns typical of present-day ‘new families’ and ‘families of choice’, or aspects of the present-day language of kinship may bring to mind some similarities with notions of kinship and related ‘household-family’ ties characteristic of the early modern period, the articl...