1804, Parish Constable Authorised to Remove Single Woman who has given birth to a Female Bastard Child who is likely to be a charge on the Parish to The House of Correction, to Punish her and set her to Work for One Whole Year.  Warrant to Apprehend the Father of a Bastard Child.

Until the Church of Ireland was Disestablished in 1871 it was the Irish State Church.  For Vestry Minutes for West Cork which have survived r were often two meetings, the first to deal with religious matters and the second often having Catholic attendees dealing with civic matters.  One item that often came up was the care of foundlings, the payment of wet nurses and the financing of same.

The Cork Grand Jury records often have an allocation for Parish to provide finance for such care.The reference to the Parish Constable was the situation before the RIC came into being in the 1820s. These Constable had a poor reputation and were often broken down old  military pensioners mostly Protestant.

 

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Some years ago a Canadian Researcher looked at the 19th Irish Catholic and Protestant and conclude what difference theewere between them weemonor.  He distinguishes them from other Northern Europeans showing that they had large families, a propensity to emigrate and low rates of illegitimacy.

 

In the mid 1830 the Devon Commission looking at Irish Poverty had a questionnaire  on ‘bastardy’.  One of the issues what was happened when a girl became pregnant by a ‘Gentleman’.  Apparently there was a well developed pattern of compensation which would then enable her to marry well.  It may explain some of the surprising DNA results coming through recently.