Limpsfield: bastardy bonds and certificates of settlement

Bastardy bonds and certificates of settlement relating to the parish of Limpsfield, Surrey.

The Poor Law acts of 1597 and 1601 had placed the responsibility for poor relief in the hands of the parish. Overseers of the poor were appointed in each parish to administer the law. These unpaid officials had the responsibility for collecting poor rates from occupiers of land and property, and for using the money to relieve the destitute, apprentice their children, and set the able-bodied unemployed to work.

Settlement Certificates

The Settlement Act of 1662 made it mandatory of each person to have a parish of legal settlement. This was the only parish in which they were entitled to receive poor relief. The parish of settlement was usually a person's parish of birth, or where they had lived or worked for at least a year. In order to obtain legal settlement in a different parish, a person had to undergo a settlement examination by the overseers of the poor and justify his request. If successful, they were granted a settlement certificate. If someone required relief when living where they did not have legal settlement, the overseers could issue a removal order to have them transferred back to their parish of settlement.

Bastardy Bonds

When a woman was known to be expecting an illegitimate child, parish officials would submit her to an examination to try to determine the name of the father. They would then attempt to have him sign a bastardy bond, in which he agreed to be responsible for the maintenance of the child.

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