A nursechild was a standard term for an infant foster child. It is not necessarily the case that a nursechild was being nursed (breastfed) by a woman in the same household. The nursechild may have been fostered out for a number of reasons, such as the loss of one or both parents, or the parents being unable to look after the child due to reduced circumstances. Before the Elizabethan poorlaw was changed in the 19th-century care of illegitimate children and their mothers was haphazard. The 19th-century poor law changed this and placed the responsibility on the mother. Most times, she was unable to hold a job and to feed the infant. One solution to her problem was the baby farmer. This person would for a small fee, offer to take care of the infant. As soon as the money stopped coming (or before), the infant would be starved to death or just dumped in a convenient place. This procedure continued until the end of the century when horror stories in the newspapers, compelled the government to act. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad Rogers" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 11:05 AM Subject: Re: [ENG-HANTS] Nurse Child On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 06:49:46 EDT [email protected] wrote: Hello [email protected], > Could someone please explain the definition of Nurse Child. The child > is on a census return age 4 years and leaving with a woman with a > different surname age 57 yrs. For whatever reason, the child's mother was unable to look after the child, and the father couldn't either. Possibly mother died during labour? The child has been homed with someone, possibly (but not necessarily) family, that is willing and able to look after the youngster. -- Regards _ / ) "The blindingly obvious is / _)rad never immediately apparent" Sign away your life Tin Soldiers - Stiff Little Fingers ............................................. Want to contact the local community? Please visit Hampshire Parish Jottings http://hants.parishjottings.org.uk ............................................. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --- avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 000727-0, 03/22/2007 Tested on: 3/23/2007 12:11:00 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com

Chris & Caroline wrote: > One solution to her problem was the baby farmer. This person would for a > small fee, offer to take care of the infant. As soon as the money stopped > coming (or before), the infant would be starved to death or just dumped in a > convenient place. Which may account for this entry I found yesterday in the burial register for Keynsham, Somerset: "A male child found in a field in the Parish of Keynsham bur 18 Nov 1840, supposed to be five weeks old" It's the first time I've seen anything like that in a register. It really is so sad. -- Charani (UK)

Charani, I did some research recently in the burial registers of Stepney and it appeared to be a frequent occurence for people to just dump the body of a deceased infant over the church yard wall, presumably knowing that someone would find it and give it a decent pauper's burial. Sandra Charani wrote: >Chris & Caroline wrote: > > > >>One solution to her problem was the baby farmer. This person would for a >>small fee, offer to take care of the infant. As soon as the money stopped >>coming (or before), the infant would be starved to death or just dumped in a >>convenient place. >> >> > >Which may account for this entry I found yesterday in the burial >register for Keynsham, Somerset: > >"A male child found in a field in the Parish of Keynsham bur 18 Nov >1840, supposed to be five weeks old" > >It's the first time I've seen anything like that in a register. It >really is so sad. > > >