Discharge from Bastardly Depositions in Westminster 1740
My direct relative Isaac Boyer begot a "****" daughter by an Elizabeth Pulley. The record from St. Margaret's Poor Laws states (film 005616468, image 347 in FS) states:
"Discharge of Isaac Bowyer then late ( "then late" crossed out) of St. Anne Westminster for taking his **** child born of the body of Elizabeth Pulley single woman and the sum of 3 lbs, 3 shillings instead of securities, dated 12 Mar 1739. [Westminster, St Margaret Poor Laws.. (FMP)] [From film 005616468, image 347 in FS]
I understand from Poor Laws that Isaac Boyer would have to support the daughter until she was apprenticed. Does this mean that Isaac Boyer took the child as his own to raise and also paid Elizabeth Pulley money for damages?
Isaac Boyer was already married and had christened 4 of his children in St. Anne Soho Westminster at the time of this deposition.
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@Graham Buckell @Jill 2021 Can either of you answer this?
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I know very little about the Poor Laws - perhaps I need to educate myself! May be @Paul W can help?
There is a wiki article
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Unfortunately, this is not familiar to me.
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Another question... Does the Parish have the authority to kick someone out of the parish because of someone's actions? Perhaps the 3lbs fee was per annum (about a 1/4 of his income). Isaac's family moved (or was forced to move) to the poverty-stricken areas of Clerkenwell (Bowling Alley Street) and the family lived there for the next 100 years. It was right by the dirty Fleet River, a street away from the rookeries of Saffron Hill and from Turnmill Street, which areas were notorious for crime. His posterity pops up in the Old Bailey records occasionally.
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Not a subject I am too familiar with, either. There is a guide "My Ancestor Was A ****", published by the Society of Genealogists, but I would be surprised if it explained circumstances relating to this unusual example. (See https://societyofgenealogists-shop.myshopify.com/products/my-ancestor-was-a-****).
All I know is that the parish would likely do all in its power to put the burden of supporting an illegitimate child onto the father, rather than the money should come from its own coffers.
The only way a person or family could be moved from the parish would be by way of a removal order, which would involve them being sent back to their home parish, or previous parish of residence. Perhaps you will find Isaac originally did come from Clerkenwell, rather than Westminster. Otherwise, perhaps this, combined with other circumstances, meant he needed to move to the less affluent Clerkenwell parish, in which his descendants appear to have remained.
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Isaac Boyer's father was Isaac Boyer, a Huguenot from Marennes France who came across ~1685. The father was still alive when his son Isaac Boyer christened his first daughter at St. Anne Soho in 1728 because he signed as a godfather. The family appeared to move by all of the Huguenot churches in Soho initially, but I could be wrong. Maybe they were in Clerkenwell. The information is really sketchy.
In the discharge above, it says, "and the sum of 3 lbs, 3 shillings instead of securities". What does it mean by securities?
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I think that securities had a similar meaning to what it has today. Certainly the British government was issuing debt back in those days. £3 was quite a bit of money for an average person at that time.
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