$4. WHAT PA- REN. If the father be dead? "It was THE point has long been fettled in England: "ruled by all the court of common pleas, upon argument, "that where the father gains a fecond fettlement after the "birth of his child, that fettlement is immediately commu"nicated to the child; and a child may be sent to the place "of his father's fettlement, without ever having been there " before "." "THE death of the father does not alter the child's fet "tlement"." So, moreover, "if the father dies before the "child is born, yet the child shall be fettled where the fa "ther was fettled before his death "." THE rule, therefore, is, that the child's fettlement follow! that of its father, if the latter can be found; and that no recourse shall be had to the mother's fettlement till that o the father can be traced no further d. even at that time, when the rule was a H. 10, G. St. Giles', Reading and And in a question, "whether the children, being above the age of "nurture, fhall be removed with the "father to the father's fettlement, "where the child had never inhabit "ed?" it was observed by lord chief-justice Lee: "In the cafe of "Everfley Blackwater, the court "were of opinion that a child might "be fent to the fettlement of his fa"ther, though it never had been there "before, contrary to an opinion of "lord Parker, in a former cafe; and, "he faid, the true diftin&tion, And b So ruled by lord-chief-juftic Holt, in the cafe of Howel and h wife, who were fettled at Lucking ton, and came to St. Austin's, wher a child was born. The father dis in the king's fervice. The questio was, who fhall keep the child? was objected that it was fettled whe born; for that they could not fer it to the father, when he was dea Comt. 380. c M. 5. An. Q. and Clifton. Vine, 382. Burn, ibid. d Burn, ibid. p. 430. 3 BUT if the father's fettlement cannot be found, or if he § 4. WHAT PA has no fettlement, being a foreigner, and not having refided RISH? the requifite period in any parish, the child, in that cafe, has-CHILDthe benefit of its mother's fettlement: her right defcends to the children; and they are not to be fent to the place of their birth a. REN. has the be In like manner, if, after the hufband's death, the widow, When it by refidence, acquires a fettlement, the benefit thereof is nefit of the communicated to her children, even preferably to that of mother's? their deceased father; because "there is no diftinction be"tween the fettlement of children with their father and "mother; for they are as much her's as the father's, and "nature obliges her, as much as the father, to provide for If he gets a "them; fo does the law; and every argument that holds by mar. " for their fettlement with the father, holds as to their riage? "fettlement with the mother ." But that fettlement which their mother acquires by marriage is not communicated to the children of the first marriage; because it is then not her family, but her husband's a. fettlement children? In the English law, it is prima facie held, that illegitimate Illegitimate children are fettled where they are born. But there are exceptions to this general rule: $4. WHAT PA RISH? ILLEGITIMATE. when not liable? FIRST, If a woman come into a parish by privity, and collufion of the officers of the parish to which the belongs, and be there delivered of a baftard, fuch baftard gains no fettlement, notwithstanding its birth . SECONDLY.-So alfo, by the ftatute of the 17 Geo. II, c. 5, where any woman, wandering and begging, fhall be deliverBirth place ed of a child, in any parish or place to which she does not belong, and thereby becomes chargeable to the fame, the churchwardens or overfeers may detain her till they can fafely convey her to a juftice of the peace. And if fuch woman shall be detained and conveyed to a juftice, the child of which fhe is delivered, if a bastard, fhall not be fettled in the place where fo born, nor be fent thither by a vagrant pafs; but the fettlement of the woman fhall be deemed the settlement of the child. A CHILD born in the house of correction shall be sent to the place of its mother's fettlement. AND in the cafe of a baftard born in the county gaol, the court of king's bench refolved that the fettlement was with the mother d ̧ A BASTARD born in a lying-in hofpital fhall follow the mother's fettlement *. ALL baftard children born in the house of industry of any hundred, or other district, incorporated by act of parliamen: for the relief and employment of the poor, fhall be deemed a Elfing, H. 2 G. Cafes of S. p. 66. But if a woman, with child of a bastard, come accidentally into one parish, and is perfuaded by fome of the parishioners to go into another parish, which fhe doth, and there is delivered, this fhall not charge that parish which perfuaded her. (3 Salk. 66.) b S. 25. dr Seff. c. 94. с 13 Geo. III, c. 82. to belong to the parish or place where the mother of such baftard child was legally fettled ". $4. WHAT PA -ILLEGI TIMATE. By the act for the encouragement and relief of friendly focieties, every child which fhall be born a baftard in any parish or place, the mother whereof fhall at the time of the birth of fuch child be a member of any fuch fociety, and be refiding in fuch parish or place under the authority of that Exception act, fuch child shall have the fame fettlement which the mo- friendly fo ther had at the birth of fuch child; any law, ufage, or cuf- cieties. tom, to the contrary notwithstanding b. NOTWITHSTANDING the child's fettlement, yet, neverthe in favour of nurture? lefs, if the mother and the child have different fettlements, it feems that the baftard child, even as all other children, fhall During go with the mother for nurture until the age of seven years, as a neceffary appendage of the mother, and infeparable from her. BUT although the child may not be feparated from the mother, yet if the voluntary defert it, it feems that the cause of nurture then cealing, it may be fent to its place of fettle ment. WHILE the child continues with its mother as a nurfe child, and during that time not removeable to its place of * 25 Geo. III, c. 36. 33 Geo. III, c. 54. § 25. As in the cafe of Skeffreth and Walford, M. 3, G. 2. The order was to remove a woman to her fettlement; and her bastard child, of two years of age, to another parish at a distance from the mother, being the place of its birth. It was object ed, that the child being a nurse child, they cannot feparate it from the mo- § 4. WHAT PA- -ILLEGI TIMATE. CONCLU fettlement, yet the parish where the child's proper settlement is, fhall maintain fuch child in that other parish 2. THIS right of the mother to the custody of her illegitimate offspring, has frequently been the subject of judicial controverfy but involving points not connected with the poor laws, it will be confidered in a subsequent chapter of this book. V. THIS very delicate, interesting, and falutary branch of municipal jurisprudence, so successfully cultivated by the Scottish legislature, has led us into more than our ufual detail. We may, however, congratulate ourselves, that we have not occafion to touch on a subject to which Dr. Burn finds it neceffary to devote near seventy pages of his esteemNo remov- ed account of the English poor laws,—the doctrine of removals, from which our fifter kingdom has suffered such manifold evils, public and private, as have attracted the attention of her eloquent writers, and indeed repeatedly even of parliament itself; but are happily unknown to us. In the fulleft enjoyment of civil liberty, and under circumstances that als in the Scottish law. promote the free circulation of labour, and remove the "obstacles by which industry is prohibited from availing it a As in the cafe of Darlington and Hemlington (H. 17, G. 3), Eleanor Guy went with a certificate from the township of Hemlington to the townfhip of Darlington, in which last township fhe had two baftard child ren, and there became chargeable. An order being thereupon made for the removal of her to Hemlington, fhe took the two children who were born in Darlington with her, being both under the age of feven years. Two juftices made an order upon the township of Darlington for the maintenance of the two children born in that township. Darlington appealed against the order of maintenance, and the feffions being of opinion that Darlington was not liable, quashed the said order; but the proceedings being removed into the court of king's bench, the court were of opinion that Darlington was obliged to maintain the two children at Hemlington, whilft refiding there with their mother as nurse children, and therefore quafhed the order of sesfions, and affirmed the order of the two juftices. (Douglas, 9 Cal. caf. 6.) |