Scandal in the parish registers

[marquette]

I have been trawling the images of the Registers of Sparsholt Hampshire and came across these interesting entries.

"Christmas, son of Christmas Hewett (a Bastard) by Martha Rogers, was privately baptised May 22 1760"

and two entries down

"Sibil, daughter of Christmas Hewett and Susannah his wife was privately baptised August 19 1760 and received into the church Sept 14th."

According to the Registers, Christmas and Susannah married in 1756 and had a daughter Ann in 1758, and Susannah died in 1761.

Would this have caused some raised eyebrows, or was it accepted as un-noteworthy in the town?

I wish this was my family, so I could justify spending some time researching - but I probably will anyway, we seem to be related to half the town.

[kiterunner]

Could the two Christmas Hewetts who were the fathers be two different people?

[marquette]

Not I dont believe so.

Christmas Hewett was baptised in 1729, the son of Christmas and Sarah.
Christmas senior (born in 1692) died in 1730, oh, his son was only a baby!

After his wife Susannah died, Christmas Junior married Hester and had more children.
Hester died in 1784 and Christmas in 1804

[Olde Crone]

I think moral attitudes varied depending on the position they held in society. Robert Ashton fathered at least four illegitimate children around 1820, two of them with my 3 x ggm. She was the daughter of a small farmer and the children seem to have been absorbed into her family. Many of my ancestors were farmers and there were many illegitimate children who don't appear to have disturbed anyone except the church authorities. I get the impression that my lot gravely agreed that illegitimacy was a sin, but privately didn't much care. A farmer could always feed his family and every pair of hands was useful on a farm.

Then we have the parish register notation - privately baptised, the natural son of Mr Briggs of Briggs Hall. Wouldn't want to upset the parish benefactor by calling his son a bastard, would you!

OC

[Katarzyna]

The vicar clearly had no qualms about calling my 2nd gt grandmother out at her marriage in 1855. Under the father's name column is written- illegitimate daughter of Rosa Killick

[Nell]

Originally Posted by Katarzyna

The vicar clearly had no qualms about calling my 2nd gt grandmother out at her marriage in 1855. Under the father's name column is written- illegitimate daughter of Rosa Killick

How interesting, Kat! My gt grandmother Ruth Barnes was illegitimate and was recorded as "illegitimate daughter of Susannah Barnes" on her marriage cert. I was surprised as I thought mothers were never recorded. Ruth named one of her children after the vicar.

I've also got relatives recorded as "bastard" in place of occupation on the census and also one as "love child" in relation to the head of the household - except that it was the head's daughter's love child and she later married the father.