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2. On Illegitimacy in Scotland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2014
Extract
In the year 1860, at the meeting of the Social Science Association in Glasgow, I read a paper on “The Causes of Illegitimacy in Scotland,” which was published shortly afterwards; and eleven years later (1871), at the meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, I read another paper on “The Illegitimacy of Banffshire,” which was privately printed. On the present occasion I intend to confine my observations to the facts exhibited by the Registrar-General's returns.
- Type
- Proceedings 1882-83
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1884
References
note * page19 It has been frequently alleged that under the Scottish system of registration the illegitimate births are more accurately recorded than in England; and that if the respective returns were equally trustworthy, the difference in the ratio of illegitimacy on the two sides of the Tweed would not be so great as it has hitherto appeared. I am disposed to think that there is some truth in the assertion. Roughly speaking, the percentage of illegitimacy in England and Scotland, as indicated by the returns, is at present about 5 and 9 respectively. Probably 7 and 9 per cent, is nearer the actual fact. The object of this paper, however, is not to compare the two countries, but to show the vast differences in the percentage of illegitimacy which present themselves in the various counties of Scotland.
note * page21 During the four years ending 1861, of the 7517 births registered in Banffshire, 1189 were illegitimate. In the case of 389 of these children—or nearly a third of the whole—the paternity was acknowledged at registration; in 64 instances the paternity was subsequently found by decree of court and recorded in terms of the statute; and in 28 cases the children were legitimated per subsequens matrimonium, such alteration of statu being also duly registered. In a few instances the judicial findings relate to children whose paternity was acknowledged at registration, from which it would appear that,. notwithstanding the reputed father's adhibition of his signature to the register, the mother is occasionally induced to raise an action against him. Of course the paternity of some more of the “fatherless” majority may yet be judicially established, and other cases of legitimation by the subsequent marriage of the parents may also take place; but no very material addition is likely to be made to the figures specified.