A Time before the Social

There was concern that no unnecessary burdens should be placed upon the local taxpayers. Therefore issues of settlement, vagrancy, and bastardy, when it was feared that a pauper or unsupported minor should become chargeable to the parish, were treated as criminal acts. These latter cases were handled very indelicately by the Justices who insisted on knowing not only who the father was but often exactly where conception had taken place. Thus poor Elizabeth Carter of Kingston, who gave birth to a boy in April 1676, was forced to admit that she had had carnal relations with a Robert Rascar ‘athwart ye chayres by the fireside’ at one house, in bed with Mr Collins, Curate of Wymering, at another in Gatcombe, and with Thomas Barrowe in the fields whilst haymaking.