Illegitimacy in Britain, 1700-1920

ALYSA LEVENE is a Leverhulme Trust and Office for Science and Technology Academic Fellow in Early Modern History at Oxford Brookes University. Her monograph, 'Left to the Mercy of the World': Childcare, Health and Mortality at the London Foundling Hospital, 1741-1800 will be published by Manchester University Press in 2006. SAMANTHA WILLIAMS is a Fellow in History at Trinity Hall and a member of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, University of Cambridge. She has published articles on poverty, welfare, the makeshift economy, and the social hist

This book provides a lively consideration of historical illegitimacy from a variety of methodological approaches and geographical standpoints. It subjects commonly-accepted themes to rigorous investigation, and draws out new conclusions on the mobility, strategies, and experiences of parents of illegitimate children.This book provides a lively consideration of historical illegitimacy from a variety of methodological approaches and geographical standpoints. It subjects commonly-accepted themes to rigorous investigation, and draws out new conclusions on the mobility, strategies, and experiences of parents of illegitimate children. Paternity is given a novel spotlight, as is the survivorship of illegitimate infants. The authors engage with themes from historical demography, and social, cultural, medical, and gender history, giving the book wide appeal.