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In the New England states, bastardy was primarily a legal action designed to compel the father of an illegitimate child to provide financial support. This was done to prevent the town from having to provide support. The laws were more about financial responsibility than morality.
The letter offered here doesn’t mention the specific reason for the legal action, but attempts to trace the parents of the child Asa.
1 1/2 pp, 7 3/4 x 9 3/4, ALS, from Plymouth, MA, April 20, 1830, N. Hayward to Charles H. Warren, Counselor at Law, Taunton [MA]. Manuscript 12 postal fee, enclosing a subpoena (not present) of an old man, Jedediah Raymond, “who is feeble & unable to go to Taunton.” The letter relays a genealogy of the family, which the old man gave in an attempt to trace the parentage of the child Asa.
“I enclose the subpoena of Lemuel & Jedediah Raymond — the old man is very feeble & unable to go to Taunton if the court was in this town, I doubt whether he would attend.
“He gave the following genealogy of a past of the same tribe with which you are so solicitous to enlarge your acquaintance viz “that free love Kimball the mother of Asa Tinkham came to Grafton New Hampshire from the state of R. Island. He thinks the town of Gloucester brought Asa with her who was then an infant. She married Joseph Hall & remained in Grafton three or four years there Hall with his Free love & her bastard child came to Plymouth & after living four or five years at South Pond, Hall & his wife went back to New Hampshire leaving Asa Tinkham with Joseph Nelson of this town when Asa became of age (the bastard child) he married William Hall’s widow. Her maiden name was Lucinda Durham by whom he had two children & after Asa died, she married Benjamin Westgate Jr.
“The aforesaid Lucinda died December 1819 & the last medical charge…in my hand writing was for my attendance on her ladyship.
“I have seen Captain Jep’ed Davis, who was one of the overseers of the poor in 1818 & will swear to the articles furnished by him to Benjamin Westgate Jr. in March & April of that year.
“N.Hayward
“P.S. Lemuel Raymond lived in Grafton NH at the time Free love came here & when he married Hall.”
Folds, light toning. Small tears reinforced with archival tape. Seal tear affects very little.
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