The Poor Law of 1576 formed the basis of English bastardy laws. Its purpose was to punish a bastard child's mother and putative father, and to relieve the parish from the cost of supporting the child.

The poor, unlike the rich, sometimes ended up in prison for having children out of wedlock – with babies ending up in houses of correction alongside their mothers to avoid the parish having to pay for a wet or dry nurse.

Whether they went to the house of correction or not, illegitimate children were even more at risk from the fearful rates of infant mortality.

Children born outside of marriage were around twice as likely to die as those born to married parents –a trend that continued until at least the early 20th century.

“The records show that although parish constables were actually quite skilled at finding fathers in the first place, they were really pretty bad at getting the money out of fathers in London,” added Williams.

“Men could disappear easily, they could join the navy – I even came across one case where one man fathered five illegitimate children - then disappeared off to America and left them all.

“Lots of men defaulted on payments and ran away, but for those who remained, arrest warrants were issued and many were sent to prison to see if they could be squeezed. Many were literally put on the treadmill, most infamously at Brixton’s House of Correction.”

Six men stand on a treadmill, ascending its revolving and endless stair under a tiled pent-house roof; all hold a horizontal bar. On the extreme left is Theodore Hook, the man responsible for the 'Berners Street Hoax'. ©Trustees of the British Museum Six men stand on a treadmill, ascending its revolving and endless stair under a tiled pent-house roof; all hold a horizontal bar. On the extreme left is Theodore Hook, the man responsible for the 'Berners Street Hoax'. ©Trustees of the British Museum

In 1824 David Byron was committed to the house of correction in Brixton for refusal to pay the bastardy expenses for his child Alfred with Susannah Turell. But he ‘got sick of the mill & paid the bill’. However, he fled to America leaving five illegitimate children behind him.

In January 1720, a Benjamin Lucas was ‘charged on oath & his own confession of begetting Eliz: Valsan with child of a bastard child which was born in the hamlet of Spittle Fields… & refusing to give sufficient security.’

In St. Margaret, Westminster, Martha Biggs was given ten shillings for clothing her child, surprisingly named Spriggs Biggs, when they both left the workhouse.

One winter’s day in November of 1792, Mary Roberts was brought before a London magistrate to be examined as to her parish of settlement. Mary had been born in St. Helen’s, Abingdon, but had travelled to London and had earned a new parish of settlement by dint of three years’ service with Mr Edwards of Danvers of Chelsea.

You've Crack'd my Pipkin Sr: said she so Marry me & Mend it, 1773. Social satire: a pregnant young woman gesturing at a cracked pitcher she holds at her waist and accusing a man who starts up in surprise and dismay. ©Trustees of the British Museum You've Crack'd my Pipkin Sr: said she so Marry me & Mend it, 1773. Social satire: a pregnant young woman accusing a man who starts up in surprise and dismay. ©Trustees of the British Museum

She was visibly pregnant and told the justice that the father was Jonathan Johnson. Nine days later, Mary entered St. Luke’s workhouse on being ‘With child’ and stayed for twelve days before she ‘Went Out at her Own Request’.

The workhouse committee agreed to give her 3s. 6d. per week but she was back a month later; the reason for admission recorded as ‘Faind in Labour’. It seems that this was a false start and a month later her stillborn baby was born in the workhouse.

After four weeks ‘lying-in’, the workhouse committee ordered her out ‘her month being up’, with two shillings. It is likely that she returned to domestic service, like so many women in her circumstances.