(Source: Palgrave Macmillan)
Palgrave
MacMillan just published a book on unmarried motherhood and poor laws in London
during the period 1700-1850.
ABOUT
In this book
Samantha Williams examines illegitimacy, unmarried parenthood and the old and
new poor laws in a period of rising illegitimacy and poor relief expenditure.
In doing so, she explores the experience of being an unmarried mother from
courtship and conception, through the discovery of pregnancy, and the birth of
the child in lodgings or one of the new parish workhouses. Although fathers
were generally held to be financially responsible for their illegitimate
children, the recovery of these costs was particularly low in London, leaving
the parish ratepayers to meet the cost. Unmarried parenthood was associated
with shame and men and women could also be subject to punishment, although this
was generally infrequent in the capital. Illegitimacy and the poor law were
interdependent and this book charts the experience of unmarried motherhood and
the making of metropolitan bastardy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Samantha
Williams is Senior Lecturer in Local and Regional History at the University of
Cambridge, UK. She has published widely on the history of poverty and the poor
law, including Poverty, Gender and Life-Cycle under the English Poor Law,
1760-1834 (2011) and Illegitimacy in Britain, 1700-1920 (2005) which she
co-edited with Alysa Levene and Thomas Nutt.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Introduction:
Illegitimacy in London; Pages 1-43
Shame; Pages
45-77
Pregnant and
Birthing Bodies; Pages 79-109
The Workhouse; Pages 111-164
Maintenance; Pages 165-205
Punishment; Pages 207-230
Conclusions
More information
on the publisher’s
website
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