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An affiliation order is what most people know as a paternity order in other words what you are describing. The proceedings were usually held in the petty sessions of the court local to where the mother lived.

There was an affiliation order - or bastardy order as they were known then - issued after my grandmother's birth. This was in Shropshire in 1896 and the record of the court case was in the Shrewsbury Record Office. They were the quarter sessions records of the courts. It may be worth looking in the local record office to see if any court records exist.

Annie

Depends on what date your grandmother was born.

If it was in the 1900's you may find a record in the local archives in the Magistrates Court Records.

Not quite the same thing I know - but when my grandfather deserted my grandmother and their three children in the 1920's we found the record of the maintenance order served on him in the Magistrate's Court Records Book giving details of how much he had to pay and how often and how much court costs he had to pay.

It might be worth a look.

Kath. x

You state that the father paid 'amicably'.................that suggests that no enforcement order was in place

My stepmother's brother fathered an illegitimate child in the 1920's...................he paid a sum weekly, without the mother having to take out any sort of 'order'

You are probably right Reggie. I missed the mention of the word "amicably" in the original post. He probably just paid up every month - and the fact that it was monthly rather than weekly makes me think this was relatively recent (at least not in the 1800's as I think it would be more likely to be weekly in those days).

In my grandfather's case in the 1920's it was 15 shillings per week - 5 shillings for each of the three children.

Kath. x

My great-grandfather was ordered to pay 2/6d per week until my grandmother was sixteen years of age.This was in 1896 so it was a lot of money. He was a wealthy farmer in Ratlinghope, Shropshire so I suppose he could afford it, although the court records show he contested it.

I think you're right. If it was amicable and he paid up it would not have gone to court. Or, there may have been a court case and he gave in gracefully.

Annie

Hi,
Just to let you know that I found an affiliation order through the national archives, A2A,
for the year 1820, just by putting the names of the three people, mother, father, and first name of child. The mother had gone to the "parish" for help so I suppose it was a bit like the modern CSA and the father was required to pay an amount each week.

In your case if it was amicable then there may be nothing on record but it might be worth a try, its free to search and if you find anything its a few pounds to obtain a copy of the actual order.
good luck.
M. :-)

we obtained a copy of the rather beautiful affiliation order for my grandmother .The father had to pay 14s a week until she was 14 the margin is a scrawl that he paid the birth attendance too.This is how we knew our great grandfather's first names

we haven't managed to find out if the payments continued because we don't know where the birth mother went to ..or what her name was when she married or if she could have continued collecting the payments in order pay for her baby to be boarded out ..

Thanks people- just back on here after the compuer was replaced :(

It was definitely done through the courts as my Great aunt used to go and fetch the money from there each time- and had to show a piece of paper to receive it. Don't know about court records - was told by archives that no bastardy records survive -but didn't mention court ones - I will look into that further - ty. It was 1914 by the way -sorry!

I was able to look at the record books in Liverpool. Had to make an appointment and tell them which years so they could get them out ready for us. My grandad had to pay 7/6 a week for my dad. The court order was in 1928.

If the man was in the services during 1914 /1918 it could be amongst his records

I found one by chance -- it was through the Magistrate's Court

Mavis

Ahhh thanks Mavis and Christine - we have no idea who he was-so he may have been -or not! but the record books were damaged apparently . Think I'll have to give up on that one.