Bastardy Orders
[Steven Newport This webpage did exist as a placeholder. I will endeavour to gather together what I can find and update it in due course.]
Bastardy orders were historical legal decrees, primarily in England, that compelled the father of a child born outside of marriage to provide financial maintenance to the parish for the child's upkeep. These orders were a crucial component of the Poor Laws, intended to relieve the parish (and its taxpayers) of the financial burden of supporting impoverished illegitimate children. Source : The above is an extract from a Google AI search which draws on several direct sources.