Blog post written by Andrea Grütter (1 May 2020)
On May 1st 1811, Susannah Fuller wrote a letter to the overseers asking for her child’s money to be sent to her. The child’s father lives in London, and the distance worries her enough to ask for the money before “the time was up”. It is unclear in which way the distance is worrisome. The mention of time suggests there is a time point by which the money is urgently needed and that the time point may not be met because of the father’s residence in London. It seems that the money is usually sent to the father who then brings or sends it to Surrey, or potentially that a trip to London must be organized to get the money. If the money were to be directly sent to Susannah as she asks, it appears the time limit would be met. This time limit seems independent of the child’s well-being, as she states that her “Child is in good health”.
It is also possible that the child in question is an illegitimate child, in which case the following applies:
“Prior to the 19th century, the Poor Law of 1733 stipulated that the putative father was responsible for the maintenance of his illegitimate child. If he failed to support the child, the mother could have him arrested on a justice’s warrant and put in prison until he agreed to do so. Local authorities issued public funds to maintain the mother and her child until the father could do so. Those public funds were to be reimbursed by the putative father, though this rarely happened. In an attempt to stem the rising costs of poor relief, the local authorities attempted to reduce their liability for illegitimate children by forcing the fathers to marry the mothers.” (Haller 1990)
In this case, it would suggest that the father of the illegitimate child has not sent financial support in time (before an agreed upon date or a date potentially stipulated by law). Susannah would therefore be contacting the overseers to receive the money from the public funds, which the father would then reimburse the local authorities for.
This letter gives insight into the role geographical distance plays in organizing daily life and the different factors that must be taken into account in petitioning for money such as where the money is sent from and where it will be needed. As was the case with Widow Owen’s letter written in Masbrough on March 20th 1769, h-dropping and h-adding is a feature that also appears in this letter, with Susannah Fuller writing “I ham” as well as “I ope”. The examples in this letter could be part of a pattern (or lack thereof) of h-dropping or h-adding in front of specific vowels which could be analysed with the data of this LALP-research project.
References:
Haller, D. (1990). Bastardy and Baby Farming in Victorian England. The Loyola University Student Historical Journal 1989-1990, 21. http://people.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1989-0/haller.htm Accessed on 29.04.2020