1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Illegitimacy

by Thomas Allan Ingram

ILLEGITIMACY (from “illegitimate,” Lat. illegitimus, not in accordance with law, hence born out of lawful wedlock), the state of being of illegitimate birth. The law dealing with the legitimation of children born out of wedlock will be found under Legitimacy and Legitimation. How far the prevalence of illegitimacy in any community can be taken as a guide to the morality of that community is a much disputed question. The phenomenon itself varies so much in different localities, even in localities where the same factors seem to prevail, that affirmative conclusions are for the most part impossible to draw. In the United Kingdom, where the figures differ considerably for the three countries—England, Scotland, Ireland—the reasons that might be assigned for the differences are negatived if applied on the same lines, as they might well be, to certain other countries. Then again, racial, climatic and social differences must be allowed for, and the influence of legislation is to be taken into account. The fact that in some countries marriage is forbidden until a man has completed his military service, in another, that consent of parents is requisite, in another, that “once a bastard always a bastard” is the rule, while in yet another that the merest of subsequent formalities will legitimize the offspring, must account in some degree for variations in figures.

Table I.—Illegitimate Births per 1000 Births (excluding still-born).

	1876–1880.	1881–1885.	1886–1890.	1891–1895.	1896–1900.	1901–1905.
England and Wales	48	48	46	42	41	40
Scotland	85	83	81	74	68	64
Ireland	24	27	28	36	36	26
Denmark	101	100	95	94	96	101
Norway	84	81	75	71	74	..
Sweden	100	102	103	105	113	..
Finland	73	70	65	65	66	..
Russia	28	27	27	27	27	..
Austria	138	145	147	146	141	..
Hungary	73	79	82	85	90	94
Switzerland	47	48	47	46	45	..
Germany	87	92	92	91	90	84
Netherlands	31	30	32	31	27	23
Belgium	74	82	87	88	80	68
France	72	78	83	87	88	88
Portugal	..	..	123	122	121	..
Spain	..	..	..	..	49	44
Italy	72	76	74	69	62	56
New South Wales	42	44	49	60	69	70
Victoria	43	46	49	60	69	70
Queensland	39	41	44	48	59	65
South Australia	..	22	25	30	38	41
West Australia	..	..	..	48	51	42
Tasmania	..	44	38	46	57	..
New Zealand	23	29	32	38	44	45

Table I. gives the number of illegitimate births per 1000 births in various countries of the world for quinquennial periods. It is to be noted that still-born births are excluded, as in the United Kingdom (contrary to the practice prevailing in most European countries) registration of such births is not compulsory. The United States is omitted, as there is no national system of registration of births.

This method of measuring illegitimacy by ascertaining the proportion of illegitimate births in every thousand births is a fairly accurate one, but there is another valuable one which is often applied, that of comparing the number of illegitimate births with each thousand unmarried females at the child-bearing age the “corrected” rate as opposed to the “crude,” as it is usually termed. This is given for certain countries in Table II.

Table II.—Illegitimate Births to 1000 Unmarried and Widowed Females, aged 15-49 years.

Country.	1846–55.	1856–65.	1866–75.	1876–85.	1886–95.	1896–1905.
England and Wales	17	18	16	13	10	8
Scotland	..	22	23	20	17	13
Ireland	..	..	5	4	5	3
Denmark	..	28	27	26	24	23
Sweden	20	22	23	22	22	..
Germany	..	..	..	28	27	26
Netherlands	..	..	10	9	9	6
Belgium	16	16	17	19	17	17
France	15	17	17	16	17	18
Italy	..	..	..	24	24	19

The generally accepted idea that the inhabitants of the warmer countries of the south of Europe are more ardent in temperament has at least no support as shown in the figures in Table I., where we find a higher rate of illegitimacy in Sweden and Denmark than in Spain or Italy. Religion, however, must be taken into account as having a strong influence in preventing unchastity, though it cannot be concluded that any particular creed is more powerful in this direction than another; for example, the figures for Austria and Ireland are very different. It cannot be said, either, that figures bear out the statement that where there is a high rate of illegitimacy there is little prostitution. It is more probable that in a country where the standard of living is low, and early marriages are the rule, the illegitimate birth-rate will be low. As regards England and Wales, the illegitimate birth-rate has been steadily declining for many years, not only in actual numbers, but also in proportion to the population.

Table III.—England and Wales.

Year.	Illegitimate Births.	Proportion to 1000 of population.	Illegitimate Births in 1000 Births.
1860	43,693	2.2	64
1865	46,585	2.2	62
1870	44,737	2.0	56
1875	40,813	1.7	48
1880	42,542	1.6	48
1885	42,793	1.6	48
1890	38,412	1.3	44
1895	38,836	1.3	42
1900	36,814	1.1	40
1905	37,515	1.1	40
1907	36,189	1.0	39

The corrected rate bears out the result shown in Table III as follows:

Table IV.—England and Wales. Illegitimate Birth-rate calculated on
the Unmarried and Widowed Female Population, aged 15-45 years.

	Rate per 1000.	Compared with rate in 1876–1880, taken as 100.
1876–1880	14.4	100.0
1881–1885	13.5	93.8
1886–1890	11.8	81.9
1891–1895	10.1	70.1
1896–1900	9.2	63.9
1901–1905	8.4	58.3
1906	8.1	56.3
1907	7.8	54.2

Table V. gives the illegitimate births to 1000 births in England and Wales for the ten years 1897–1906 and for the year 1907. Table VI. gives the “corrected” rate for certain three-year periods. In connexion with these tables the following extract from the Registrar-General’s Report for 1907 (p. xxx.) is important.

Table V.—England and Wales. Illegitimate Births to 1000 Births.

	Ten years 1897– 1906.	1907.		Ten years 1897– 1906.	1907.		Ten years 1897– 1906.	1907.
Bedford	49	53	Leicestershire	40	39	Wilts	41	42
Berks	47	48	Lincolnshire	55	54	Worcester	37	38
Bucks	40	44	London	37	38	Yorks—
Cambridge	48	53	Middlesex	30	28	E. Riding	52	49
Chester	41	39	Monmouth	29	27	N.  ”	53	45
Cornwall	50	48	Norfolk	62	65	W.  ”	43	41
Cumberland	61	58	Northampton	41	42
Derby	41	41	Northumberland	39	38	Anglesey	81	75
Devon	39	39	Nottingham	50	49	Brecon	44	40
Dorset	40	37	Oxford	53	56	Cardigan	64	61
Durham	34	37	Rutland	46	70	Carmarthen	37	41
Essex	28	27	Shropshire	64	61	Carnarvon	60	72
Gloucester	36	36	Somerset	37	35	Denbigh	49	47
Hants	40	36	Stafford	40	38	Flint	42	42
Hereford	66	66	Suffolk	56	62	Glamorgan	26	26
Hertford	40	42	Surrey	38	37	Merioneth	71	77
Huntingdon	49	46	Sussex	52	52	Montgomery	76	73
Kent	40	41	Warwick	32	30	Pembroke	52	47
Lancashire	38	37	Westmorland	61	62	Radnor	66	67

Table VI.—Annual Illegitimate Birth-rates in each Registration County of England and Wales, 1970–1907.

Registration Counties.	Illegitimate Births to 1000 Unmarried and Widowed Females aged 15–45 years.							Decrease per cent in each County  between the period  1870–1872 and 1907.
	Three-year Periods.					Years.
	1870–1872.	1880–1882.	1890–1892.	1900–1902.	1903–1905.	1906.	1907.
England and Wales	17.0	14.1	10.5	8.5	8.3	8.1	7.8	54.1
London	10.3	9.8	8.1	6.9	6.9	6.8	6.4	37.9
Bedford	21.1	18.0	11.2	8.4	8.0	8.2	8.7	58.8
Berks	16.8	13.4	10.3	8.7	8.6	8.1	8.4	50.0
Bucks	19.0	16.5	12.6	9.1	8.9	7.3	8.8	53.7
Cambridge	19.3	15.6	12.4	9.6	10.1	9.7	10.4	46.1
Chester	17.5	14.2	10.3	7.7	7.3	7.2	6.9	60.6
Cornwall	16.5	14.8	11.2	8.6	8.1	7.5	7.5	54.5
Cumberland	29.2	23.9	18.6	12.3	12.3	12.3	11.0	62.3
Derby	22.5	17.7	12.8	10.0	10.0	10.0	9.4	58.2
Devon	14.0	10.6	8.1	6.7	6.5	6.7	6.1	56.4
Dorset	14.2	13.1	9.6	7.2	7.2	8.1	6.4	54.9
Durham	24.0	18.0	13.8	11.1	11.1	10.8	11.6	51.7
Essex	16.2	12.7	9.1	7.3	7.1	6.7	6.4	60.5
Gloucester	12.9	11.6	8.2	6.3	6.1	6.8	5.8	55.0
Hants	13.6	11.8	8.5	7.3	7.1	6.9	6.4	52.9
Hereford	21.4	19.0	13.4	11.2	11.5	10.3	11.0	48.6
Hertford	18.4	15.3	10.4	7.0	7.2	6.6	7.5	59.2
Huntingdon	19.8	14.0	12.9	10.9	9.7	9.7	9.7	51.0
Kent	14.7	12.1	9.3	7.5	7.6	7.5	7.2	51.0
Lancashire	16.2	13.6	10.2	7.9	7.8	7.5	7.2	55.6
Leicestershire	19.9	16.1	11.4	8.6	7.9	7.5	7.3	63.3
Lincolnshire	22.3	18.5	14.2	12.2	12.1	12.7	11.9	46.6
Middlesex	9.4	9.4	6.5	5.9	6.0	6.1	5.7	39.4
Monmouth	18.6	15.9	11.3	10.2	9.1	9.6	9.3	50.0
Norfolk	27.3	22.6	16.7	13.4	13.4	12.5	12.8	53.1
Northampton	18.7	15.9	11.7	9.1	8.8	9.0	7.7	58.8
Northumberland	21.1	17.9	12.4	10.2	10.0	10.4	9.3	55.9
Nottingham	24.5	21.7	15.4	13.7	12.6	12.0	11.9	51.4
Oxford	19.0	15.4	10.4	9.0	9.1	9.3	9.2	51.6
Rutland	18.1	12.7	7.9	7.2	6.8	9.0	11.4	37.0
Salop	28.2	21.8	16.6	12.8	13.4	13.0	11.8	58.2
Somerset	13.3	11.3	7.4	6.0	6.0	5.4	5.5	58.6
Stafford	24.6	19.4	14.5	11.2	11.4	10.9	10.1	58.9
Suffolk	22.0	17.8	14.0	12.0	11.7	12.4	12.5	43.2
Surrey	9.5	8.5	6.6	5.9	5.7	5.9	5.7	40.0
Sussex	13.7	11.5	8.7	7.2	7.0	6.5	6.4	53.3
Warwick	14.9	13.2	9.7	7.6	7.5	6.6	6.8	54.4
Westmorland	21.9	17.9	13.1	8.6	9.1	8.5	7.8	64.4
Wilts	17.1	14.7	10.3	9.2	8.7	8.6	9.3	45.6
Worcester	16.3	13.7	9.2	7.2	6.8	6.6	6.6	59.5
Yorks—
E. Riding	23.0	18.2	14.3	12.2	11.7	12.2	10.6	53.9
N. Riding	27.7	20.2	15.4	12.1	11.6	11.9	10.2	63.2
W. Riding	20.4	16.1	11.4	9.4	9.2	8.8	8.1	60.3
Anglesey	19.7	16.7	15.7	16.1	14.9	13.3	12.9	34.5
Brecon	19.9	18.0	12.5	10.1	9.2	9.2	8.3	58.3
Cardigan	16.0	14.8	11.8	8.9	7.8	6.3	7.3	54.4
Carmarthen	18.2	13.9	9.4	7.7	8.2	7.7	8.9	51.1
Carnarvon	18.3	13.9	12.7	10.3	9.6	9.4	10.5	42.6
Denbigh	21.1	17.6	13.4	12.3	11.6	13.5	10.3	51.2
Flint	18.7	18.4	13.1	9.7	11.2	11.9	11.0	41.2
Glamorgan	17.7	13.5	10.3	8.5	9.1	8.9	8.4	52.5
Merioneth	24.4	19.5	16.4	13.5	13.4	13.2	12.7	48.0
Montgomery	29.5	24.3	16.7	13.1	13.4	12.6	11.7	60.3
Pembroke	21.6	15.9	12.4	8.9	10.2	10.7	8.4	61.1
Radnor	41.8	33.2	20.1	14.4	13.4	8.3	11.3	73.0

Table VII.—Rate of Illegitimacy per 1000 Births.

Belfast	31	Liverpool	54
Birmingham	35	Manchester	28
Bradford	40	Middlesboro’	25
Bristol	31	Newcastle	36
Cork	18	Nottingham	60
Dublin	28	Portsmouth	33
Edinburgh	69	Salford	28
Glasgow	63	Sunderland	30
Leeds	54

Table VIII.—Scotland 1906.

Total Births.	Legitimate.	Illegitimate.	Births per 1000 of pop.	Percentage of Illegitimate to Total Births.
⁠132,005	122,699	9306	27.93	7.05

	Illegitimate Births.	Percentage of Illegitimate to Total Births.		Illegitimate Births.	Percentage of Illegitimate to Total Births.
1860	9,736	9.22	1895	9,204	7.28
1865	11,262	9.96	1900	8,534	6.49
1870	11,108	9.63	1901	8,359	6.32
1875	10,786	8.73	1902	8,300	6.28
1880	10,589	8.50	1903	8,295	6.21
1885	10,680	8.47	1904	9,010	6.79
1890	9,241	7.60	1905	9,082	6.91
			1906	9,306	7.05

Table IX.—Scotland 1906.

	Illegitimate Births.		Illegitimate Births per 1000 of Unmarried Women and Widows between 15 and 45.
	No.	Per 1000 of Pop.
Districts:
Principal Town	4318	7.14
Large Town	1029	5.58
Small Town	1724	6.23
Mainland-rural	2099	9.08
Insular-rural	136	5.88
Shetland	31	5.30	7.0
Orkney	29	5.99	7.7
Caithness	84	9.96	19.4
Sutherland	28	6.81	10.1
Ross and Cromarty	74	4.40	6.9
Inverness	145	8.02	11.5
Nairn	18	10.29	13.2
Elgin (or Moray)	169	15.66	26.3
Banff	202	12.93	25.4
Aberdeen	1083	12.38	24.2
Kincardine	93	8.15	17.0
Forfar	676	9.43	14.2
Perth	215	7.93	10.8
Fife	308	4.56	9.7
Kinross	20	9.95	22.2
Clackmannan	53	6.69	10.9
Stirling	235	4.91	13.2
Dumbarton	163	4.14	9.7
Argyll	148	10.07	12.7
Bute	30	8.36	9.2
Renfrew	410	4.46	8.5
Ayr	499	6.23	14.3
Lanark	2872	6.28	15.9
Linlithgow	99	3.88	15.4
Edinburgh	930	7.23	11.0
Haddington	66	5.92	11.8
Berwick	60	9.63	12.7
Peebles	21	6.18	7.9
Selkirk	46	9.13	11.5
Roxburgh	83	8.67	9.8
Dumfries	218	12.51	19.9
Kirkcudbright	92	10.71	15.7
Wigtoun	106	12.79	22.5
Scotland	9306	7.05	14.1

“It is difficult to explain the variations in the rates of illegitimacy in the several counties. It may be stated generally that the proportion of illegitimate children cannot alone serve as a standard of morality. Broadly speaking, however, the single and widowed women in London, in the counties south of the Thames, and in the south-western counties have comparatively few illegitimate children; on the other hand, the number of illegitimate children is comparatively high in Shropshire, in Herefordshire, in Staffordshire, in Nottinghamshire, in Cumberland, in North Wales, and also in nearly all the counties on the eastern seaboard, viz. Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire, and Durham. In the Registrar-General’s Report for the year 1851 it was assumed that there was an indirect connexion between female illiteracy and illegitimacy. This may have been the case in the middle of the last century, but there is no conclusive evidence that such is the case at the present day. The proportions of illegitimacy and the proportions of married women who signed the marriage register by mark are relatively high in Staffordshire, in North Wales, in Durham and in the North Riding of Yorkshire; on the other hand, in Norfolk, in Suffolk and in Lincolnshire there is a comparatively high proportion of illegitimacy and a low proportion of illiteracy.”

Table X.—Ireland. Proportion per cent of Illegitimate Births.

	1903.	1904.	1905.	1906.	1907.
Ireland	2.6	2.5	2.6	2.6	2.5
Leinster	2.6	2.6	2.7	2.7	2.7
Munster	2.3	2.2	2.3	2.2	2.1
Ulster	3.3	3.4	3.5	3.5	3.3
Connaught	0.5	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6

Table XI.—Ireland 1907.

County.	No. of Illegitimate Births.	Per cent of Total Births.
Leinster—
Carlow	27	3.56
Dublin	34	1.15
Dublin Co. Borough	314	3.29
Kildare	22	1.46
Kilkenny	54	3.29
King’s	24	2.07
Longford	11	1.23
Louth	27	2.01
Meath	30	2.27
Queen’s	18	1.70
Westmeath	19	1.57
Wexford	89	4.11
Wicklow	37	2.91
Munster—
Clare	23	1.04
Cork Co. and Co. Borough	151	1.69
Kerry	51	1.34
Limerick Co. and Co. Borough	107	3.14
Tipperary N.R.	19	1.49
Tipperary S.R.	66	3.32
Waterford Co. and Co. Borough	68	3.69
Ulster—
Antrim	230	5.08
Armagh	99	3.49
Belfast Co. Borough	355	3.13
Cavan	27	1.54
Donegal	54	1.36
Fermanagh	41	3.15
Londonderry Co. and Borough	145	4.35
Monaghan	24	1.55
Tyrone	116	3.80
Connaught—
Galway	32	.80
Leitrim	10	.77
Mayo	21	.45
Roscommon	9	.50
Sligo	9	.52
Leinster	716	2.67
Munster	495	2.11
Ulster	1272	3.32
Connaught	81	.60
	2564

This latter conclusion may be carried further by saying that in those European countries where elementary education is most common, the rate of illegitimacy is high, and that it is low in the more illiterate parts, e.g. Ireland and Brittany.

It has been said that one of the contributory causes of illegitimacy is the contamination of great cities; statistics, however, disprove this, there being more illegitimacy in the rural districts. Table VII. gives the rate of illegitimacy in some of the principal towns of the United Kingdom.

That poverty is a determining factor in causing illegitimacy the following figures, giving the rate of illegitimacy in the poorest parts of London and in certain well-to-do parts, clearly disprove:—

Rate of Illegitimacy per 1000 Births.

London.	1901.	1903.	1905.	1907.
Stepney	12	9	18	10
Bethnal Green	13	15	13	11
Mile End Old Town	15	13	16	15
Whitechapel	22	24	19	19
St George’s, Hanover Sq.	40	45	45	45
Kensington	48	44	49	54
Fulham	43	42	45	40
Marylebone	182	186	198	182

Tables VIII. and IX. give the rate of illegitimacy for the various counties of Scotland, and Table X. the rate for Ireland.

Bibliography.—The Annual Reports of the Registrars-General for England, Scotland and Ireland; statistical returns of foreign countries; A. Leffingwell, Illegitimacy and the Influence of the Seasons upon Conduct (1892).  (T. A. I.)