The Probert Encyclopaedia of General Information

BASTARD

A bastard is a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate child. By the former civil and canon laws, and by the law of Scotland (as well as of some of the United States), a bastard became legitimate by the intermarriage of the parents at any future time. But by the former laws of England a child, to be legitimate, must at least be born after the lawful marriage; it did not require that the child should be begotten in wedlock, but it was indispensable that it should be born after marriage, no matter how short the time, the law presuming it to be the child of the husband. The only incapacity of a bastard in former law was that he cannot be heir or next of kin to any one save his own issue. In England the maintenance of a bastard in the first instance formerly devolved on the mother, while in Scotland it was a joint burden upon both parents. The mother was entitled to the custody of the child in preference to the father. By the 1980's the law had evolved and illegitimacy was irrelevant.
Research Bastard