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Baptisms & Bastardy in Burbage, Wiltshire : 1670 - 1860
Prologue
Many regard the morals standards of the U.K. (and the western world for that matter) to have begun a steep decline in the late nineteen sixties with the coming of the 'permissive society'. But was that so? Was Britain so pure before then? Historians argue that the high number of second and third marriages in today's society in not fundamentally different to the situation during and before Victoria's reign - the only material difference being that today it is out of choice whereas it was then due to the high mortality rate. Their point is that previous societies rarely experienced a marriage which could last 50+ years whereas today that would often be the norm unless divorce intervened. Would marriages in their society have been able to cope any better with such long relationships?
Also we hear today of the vast number of children born outside of wedlock. Luckily society today has learned (or been forced to learn) to come to terms with this situation but many still talk of the shame which befell a family should some luckless daughter fall to the amorous advances of her latest suitor. But it is well known how many Victorians practiced double standards with their outwardly devout religious imagery and Evangelicalism often sharply contrasting their economic treatment of the 'ungodly masses'. Much of what Dickens wrote accurately portrayed Victorian life.
Burbage
Here in Burbage an analysis of the baptism registers reveals an interesting story of how our moral standards varied over the decades leading into the early Victorian period. The graphs below tell of a sharp decline in these moral standards from about 1760 with an even sharper fall from 1800. During this last 60 years of the study period, over 9% of all baptisms were performed on illegitimate children (the peak year being 1844 when 9 of the 37 children baptized - 24% - were illegitimate!).
A brief explanation of these figures is necessary. They show the number of baptisms recorded in the parish registers and so only apply to those who chose the Established church as a place of worship - e.g. Methodists would not be included. Although the social pressures to have a child baptized were very strong, the countering force of fleeing the public humiliation and ridicule to which the mother may be subjected during the service could sometimes be even stronger. The Bishop's Visitation Reports of 1756 to 1769 record the illegitimate children born during each year yet a comparison with the baptism registers show that not all were subsequently baptized (or at least not at Burbage). Most vicars and curates recorded illegitimate baptisms in the registers by adding such words as "base born", "born in fornication", "natural daughter/son", "bastard child" or, should the parents subsequently marry, "begat of fornication outside of wedlock". These clerks would often show their disgust in the way they completed the register, ignoring the columns and just scrawling across the page. Some were more subtle and just recorded the mother's occupation as "spinster". The entries are also obvious by the omission of the father's name - even though the Bishop's Visitation records sometimes recorded it - but during the latter years of the study period, Vicar Stanton changed this and often named the father. So the figures do not show the full extent of the problem with most children conceived outside of wedlock and bastards who were stillborn or born away from the village at some distant relative's house, not necessarily being recorded. Neither are the 'ungodly' who simply refused to have their children baptized.
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These figures suggest a local society where moral values had lapsed from those expected by any previous generation however the third graph shows that until about 1790, Burbage was simply reflecting the national trend. Following the restitution of the monarchy in 1660, the scandalous affairs of successive monarchs and their children came as a stark contrast to the puritan standards demanded during the Commonwealth and led to each level of society successively adopting 'looser morals'. The clergy were obviously outraged by the decline but never in a strong enough position to do much about it. During the latter part of the 18th century and through to the beginning of Victoria's reign (1837), the Church of England was under strong attack for its absentee vicars (who often held multiple livings and did little in any of them), greed (in the form of Tithes), and general ineffectiveness. Indeed it had to fight hard to prevent it loosing its status of the Established church and probably only saved itself by agreeing to the passing of the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 which saw this hated tax being replaced by a rent charge.
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So what went wrong in Burbage after 1790 and through to about 1810? The available figures suggest that nationally things were beginning to stabilize whereas here, the situation continued to worsen. What were the local factors which could explain the continued increase in the number of illegitimate children?
One possible contributory factor could be that Burbage had no resident vicar between 1767 and 1841 and so whatever progress the church was making nationally in re-establishing a moral framework, it was not being felt in the parish. However against this is the fact that when the incumbent did return to reside (the first being the Reverend Shephard Gale in 1841, and then the Reverend Thomas Stanton in 1852) there was no improvement in the illegitimacy rates.
Probably a more relevant factor could be the influx of immoral strangers. From about 1795 through to about 1807 Burbage and the surrounding villages would have been invaded by the infamous and lawless navies (many of whom brought their concubines) who came to dig the Kennet & Avon canal. From then on, until long after the study period, many canal folk would have visited the parish and possibly 'corrupted' the village maidens on their way through.
Conclusion
Was Burbage an immoral place? Not particularly so but maybe a little worse than others.
Anyone researching their family's history may well be shocked at the frequency with which illegitimate children were baptized in the parish yet it appears that our village's ancestors were in general not much worse that those of other rural areas. The above research simply puts Burbage's plight into a national context while probably the most astonishing revelation is that any concept of England as a chaste society prior to the corrupting factors of the Industrial Revolution needs to be rethought as the 'rot' had started long before the invention of the spinning jenny. But it could be argued that Burbage was possibly a little worse than the norm so what were the influencing factors? The likely cause is that unlike many of the surrounding villages, the parish has always had to accommodate long distance travelers with the three ancient inns (Star & Cleaver, Kings Arms and White Hart) thriving until the decline of the turnpike trade about 1860. The coming of the canal (opened throughout in 1810) probably helped increase the problem in the parish as neither navies nor bargees have any sort of moral standing in most Christian or historians' eyes. Just beyond the study period (and again in the 1890s) Burbage saw the return of the navies, only this time to build the railways which were to be so influential in village life well into the twentieth century. One can only imagine that the effect on the local populace was similar to that experienced during the digging of the canal and further research into the Baptism Registers would prove fruitful.
References and further reading
The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 - Lawrence Stone
Communities and Families - Golby
Religion in Victorian Britain; Vol 1 - Parsons (ed)
Victorian Underworld - K Chesney
Visitation records - W&SRO D11/2/5 (1751-1799)
Baptism Registers - W&SRO 1678/xx