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Bond of Indemnity
( Bastardy Bonds)
An act of 1576 enabled Justices to imprison the parents of an illegitimate child. A further Act of 1610 allowed the mother to be sent to prison unless she could give securities for her future good behaviour. Usually the child would receive the same settlement rites as the mother but if the father was known to be of another parish the child and mother would be settled in the fathers parish if the parents married.
An act of 1733 obliged the mother to declare that she
was pregnant with an illegitimate child and to reveal the fathers name. Parish
officials would then attempt to obtain a maintenance sum from him by way of
a Bond of Indemnity (often referred to as a Bastardy Bond) this could be either
a lump sum or moneys paid over a period. The Overseers of the Poor in any given
parish were responsible for bringing proceedings against fathers for maintenance
of illegitimate children however, by the mid nineteenth
century the Overseers were responsible for administering the Poor Rate and therefore
their role in Bastardy cases diminished. There after Boards of Guardians dealt
with Bastardy by admitting mothers and children to workhouses, the onus was
on the mother to bring proceedings against the father.
The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 enabled the mother
of an illegitimate child to apply at Petty Sessions for maintenance from the
father. These applications were sent in the form of annual returns to the Clerk
of the Peace. The records of Petty Sessions can therefore sometimes be of value.
However, Sheffield was not granted its own court of Quarter Session until
1880, although a separate Commission of the Peace was granted in 1848, the early
registers do not seem to have survived. Prior to 1880 magistrates acting in
the town of Sheffield did so by virtue of the West Riding Commission of the
Peace and any surviving records will be lodged at the West Yorkshire Archives
Service HQ at Wakefield.
West Yorkshire Archives HQ
Reistry of Deeds
Newstead Road
Wakefield
WF1 2DE
(01924) 305980
E-mail: wakefield@wyjs.org.uk
Unfortunately there is a gap in the records the archives hold relating to Petty
Sessions in Sheffield covering the period August 1884 to May 1887.
Submitted by G Marsh
Original info Sheffield Archives
