The Experience of Pregnancy and Childbirth for Unmarried Mothers in London, 1760–1866

Abstract

This article explores the experience of pregnancy and childbirth for unmarried mothers in the metropolis in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It draws upon, in particular, the infanticide cases heard at the Old Bailey between 1760 and 1866. Many of the women in these records found themselves alone and afraid as they coped with the pregnancy and birth of their first child. A great deal is revealed about the birthing body: the ambiguity surrounding the identification of and signs of pregnancy, labour and delivery, the place of birth and the degree of privacy, and the nature of, and dangers associated with, solitary childbirth.

Notes

[1] I would like to thank audiences at workshops at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, where I presented earlier papers.

[2] The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online [hereafter POB], t17690628‐27. See footnote 4 below for the full reference to the archive.

[3] For an explanation of the lung test see M. Jackson (1996) New‐Born Child Murder: women, illegitimacy and the courts in eighteenth‐century England (Manchester: Manchester University Press) and G. K. Behlmer (1979) Deadly Motherhood: infanticide and medical opinion in mid‐Victorian England, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 34, pp. 403–427.

[4] There were 155 cases of infanticide tried before the Old Bailey between 1760 and 1866 and 196 cases of concealment of birth (which begin in 1836). Of the infanticide cases, ninety have sufficient evidence to be used in this study. Of the 196 concealment cases, just eight contain the necessary information. Most of the latter simply record name and age of the accused, date of trial, verdict and punishment. Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online [POB], http://www.oldbaileyonline.org (accessed in October and November 2007 and July 2008). P.P. (Parliamentary Papers) 1866 XXI Report of the Capital Punishment Commission. The quality of infanticide and concealment cases is uneven, however, and the amount and relevance of the information deteriorates as the nineteenth century progresses. It seems that the Victorians became squeamish since the details of more disturbing cases start to be recorded as unsuitable for publication, whereas such details were recorded in the eighteenth century. In addition, very few details are published in cases where it was not known whether the child was born alive or dead.

[5] 1803 Offences Against the Person Act. H. Marland (2004) Dangerous Motherhood: insanity and childbirth in Victorian Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), pp.168–169; L. Rose (1986) Massacre of the Innocents: infanticide in Great Britain 1800–1939 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), ch. 8.

[6] There are fifty‐six cases where the woman was clearly identified as unmarried, thirty where she was probably unmarried, and four of widows where she could not have been pregnant by her late husband and the child would have been considered as illegitimate. There were an additional five cases of women identified as married, and a handful were prosecutions of men accused of killing children.

[7] POB, t18230219‐37.

[8] POB, t18280410‐17.

[9] POB, t18440819‐1929

[10] On the age of unmarried mothers, see R. Trumbach (1998) Sex and the Gender Revolution (London: University of Chicago). On domestic service and unmarried motherhood, see J. Gillis (1983) Servants, Sexual Relations and the Risks of Illegitimacy in London, 1801–1900, in J. L. Newton, M. P. Ryan and J. R. Walkowitz (Eds) Sex and Class in Women’s History (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), pp.114–145.

[11] L. Gowing (1997) Secret Births and Infanticide in Seventeenth‐Century England, Past and Present, 156, pp. 87–115; Jackson New‐Born Child Murder; M. Jackson (Ed.) (2002) Infanticide: historical perspectives on child murder and concealment 1550–2000 (Aldershot: Ashgate); R. W. Malcolmson (1977) Infanticide in the Eighteenth Century, in J. S. Cockburn (Ed.) Crime in England 1550–1800 (London: Methuen), pp.187–209; P. C. Hoffer and N. E. H. Hull (1981) Murdering Mothers: infanticide in England and New England, 1558–1805 (New York: New York University Press); Rose, Massacre of the Innocents; A. R. Higginbotham (1989) ‘Sin of the Age’: infanticide and illegitimacy in Victorian London, Victorian Studies, Spring, pp. 319–337; Behlmer, ‘Deadly Motherhood’; R. Sauer (1978) Infanticide and Abortion in Nineteenth‐Century Britain, Population Studies, 32, pp. 81–93; Marland, Dangerous Motherhood, ch. 6.

[12] Not all women delivered themselves alone in private but instead are accused of killing their babies at a later date.

[13] A. Wilson (1995) The Making of Man‐Midwifery: childbirth in England, 1660–1770 (London: UCL Press).

[14] L. Gowing (2003) Common Bodies: women, touch and power in seventeenth‐century England (London: Yale University Press), p. 173. See also D. Evenden (1993) Mothers and their Midwives in Seventeenth‐Century London, in H. Marland (Ed.) The Art of Midwifery: early modern midwives in Europe (London: Routledge).

[15] Marland, Dangerous Motherhood, p. 17.

[16] Gowing, Common Bodies, p. 151.

[17] Ibid., ch. 5.

[18] Ibid.; T. Evans (2005) ‘Unfortunate Objects’: lone mothers in eighteenth‐century London (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

[19] POB, t18000115‐20.

[20] There are a small number of Old Bailey cases where the mothers had birth attendants. See also S. K. Williams (2010) ‘I was Forced to Leave my Place to Hide my Shame’: the living arrangements of unmarried mothers in London in the early nineteenth century, in J. McEwan & P. Sharpe (Eds) Accommodating Poverty: the housing and living arrangements of the English poor, c. 1600–1850 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 191–219; Gowing, Common Bodies, ch. 5.

[21] Evans, ‘Unfortunate Objects’, ch. 7. There has been very little research into the extent to which unmarried women were delivered in parochial and union workhouses and this article is part of a much wider study by the author on just this question. Of the literature that does exist, for the eighteenth century see T. Hitchcock (1997) ‘Unlawfully Begotten on her Body’: illegitimacy and the parish poor in St Luke’s Chelsea, in T. Hitchcock, P. King & P. Sharpe (Eds) Chronicling Poverty: the voices and strategies of the English poor, 1640–1840 (London: Macmillan), pp. 70–86, and for the nineteenth century see A. Digby (1978) Pauper Palaces (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).

[22] Jackson, New‐Born Child Murder, ch. 3.

[23] Ibid., p. 61.

[24] POB, t17660409‐67.

[25] POB, t17621208‐26.

[26] Of those cases where it is mentioned whether the pregnancy was suspected or not, forty‐seven were suspected and seventeen were not.

[27] POB, t17611021‐27.

[28] POB, t17930220‐38.

[29] Gowing, Common Bodies, pp. 120–123, 141–144; Jackson, New‐Born Child Murder, pp. 61–65.

[30] Gowing, Common Bodies, pp. 120–123, 141–144.

[31] POB, t17701024‐51.

[32] POB, t17600116‐21.

[33] Marland, Dangerous Motherhood, p. 154; Gowing, Common Bodies, p. 153. The Old Bailey case of Sarah Reynolds records a daughter being with her mother during labour.

[34] Marland, Dangerous Motherhood, p. 23.

[35] Jackson, New‐Born Child Murder, p. 66; see also Gowing, Common Bodies, p. 171.

[36] See also Gowing, Common Bodies.

[37] POB, t17621208‐27.

[38] POB, t18000115‐20, t18090920‐114.

[39] POB, t17710410‐35.

[40] POB, t17751206‐82.

[41] POB, t17810530‐42, t17880910‐83, t18080406‐35.

[42] POB, t17600116‐21.

[43] POB, t17621208‐26.

[44] POB, t18090412‐33.

[45] POB, t17901027‐78.

[46] Capital Punishment Commission, qu. 2199.

[47] POB, t17600116‐21.

[48] POB, t17611021‐27.

[49] Gowing, Common Bodies.

[50] POB, t17660702‐36.

[51] POB, t18531024‐1122.

[52] POB, t17751206‐82.

[53] POB, t18080406‐35.

[54] POB, t17701024‐51, t17710410‐35.

[55] POB, t17620421‐26.

[56] POB, t18320517‐65.

[57] Wilson, Making of Man‐Midwifery.

[58] POB, t17701024‐51.

[59] POB, t18000115‐20.

[60] POB, t17660702‐36.

[61] POB, t17710410‐35.

[62] POB, t18090412‐33.

[63] POB, t17930220‐38.

[64] POB, t18011028‐8.

[65] POB, t17600521‐17.

[66] POB, t18080406‐35.

[67] POB, t18610408‐344, t18630713‐886.

[68] POB, t17840915‐149.

[69] POB, t17701024‐51.

[70] POB, t17660702‐36.

[71] POB, t17701024‐5.

[72] POB, t18531024‐1122.

[73] POB, t17621208‐27, t18440819‐1929.

[74] POB, t17930220‐38.

[75] POB, t18000115‐20.

[76] POB, t17701024‐51.

[77] Capital Punishment Commission, qu. 1808.

[78] Ibid.

[79] This case, of Elizabeth Strangeway, is in the Old Bailey Proceedings and is reported in the 1866 Commission Minutes.

[80] For further evidence on the physical examination of single women suspected of delivering a child, for the seventeenth century see Gowing, Common Bodies and Gowing, ‘Secret Births’; for the eighteenth century see Jackson, New‐Born Child Murder.

[81] POB, t18361128‐53a, t18531024‐1122, t18540612‐737.

[82] POB, t18060917‐48.

[83] POB, t18641212‐140, t18471025‐2345.

[84] POB, t17751206‐82.

[85] POB, t17701024‐51.

[86] POB, t17611021‐27.

[87] Evans, Unfortunate Objects, pp. 150–151; St Margaret’s Westminster, Workhouse Committee Minutes, E2633 Westminster City Archives, 9.1.1728/9, 5.11.1730; A. Sheen (1890) The Workhouse and its Medical Officer (Bristol: John Wright and Co., 2nd edn), pp. 35–36.

[88] Gowing, Common Bodies, pp. 150, 172.

[89] POB, t18080406‐35.

[90] POB, t18050710‐37.

[91] POB, t18471025‐2345.

[92] POB, t18050710‐37.

[93] POB, t18521122‐73.

[94] POB, t18000115–20, t17710911‐63.

[95] Marland, Dangerous Motherhood, p. 145.

[96] POB, 17600227‐6, t17600116‐21.

[97] Jackson, New‐Born Child Murder, p. 63.

[98] Capital Punishment Commission, qu.s 1790, 1800.

[99] POB, t18531024‐1122.

[100] Evans, Unfortunate Objects, pp. 132, 151.

[101] POB, t18370403‐1112.

[102] POB, t18531024‐1123.

[103] POB, t18561027‐1005.

[104] POB, t17930220‐38. See also V. Fildes (1986) Breasts, Bottles and Babies: a history of infant feeding (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).

[105] Marland, Dangerous Motherhood, p. 142.

[106] Ibid., pp. 54, 130–131, 154–158, 262–263 n. 55.

[107] Ibid., p. 155.

[108] POB, t17710410‐35.

[109] POB, t17710911‐63.

[110] Marland, Dangerous Motherhood, p. 130.

[111] POB, t18440819‐2178.

[112] Marland, Dangerous Motherhood, pp. 9–13.

[113] Capital Punishment Commission, qu. 2193.

[114] Ibid., qu. 2194.

[115] Ibid., qu.14.

[116] Ibid., qu. 1470.

[117] Ibid., qu.s 1046‐7.

[118] Ibid., qu.s 137, 426.

[119] S. K. Williams (2005) ‘That the Petitioner Shall have Borne a Good Character for Virtue, Sobriety, and Honesty Previous to her Misfortune’: unmarried mothers’ petitions to the Foundling Hospital and the rhetoric of need in the long eighteenth century, in A. Levene, T. Nutt & S. K. Williams (Eds) Illegitimacy in Britain 1700–1920 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 86–101.