A Treatise on the Law of Adulterine Bastardy with a report of the Banbury case and of all other cases bearing upon the subject by Nicolas, Nicholas Harris, Sir, 1799-1848.

Towards the end of the reign of Henry the Eighth two instances occurred of women, in the highest rank of society, having children bom in adultery, whilst their husbands were within the Realm. To prevent the spurious issue from succeeding to the husbands' honours and estates, two Acts of Parliament were passed, one of which Acts not only bastardized the children, but declared that, notwithstanding they were notoriomly begotten in Adultery, they would nevertheless be inheritable; and the other expressly declared that such children "be legitimate, and will be inheritable."

The first of these cases is that of Lady Parr (age 26), in the 34th Hen. VIII.; and the Act¹ states, "that for the last two years she had eloped from her husband, William Lord Parr (age 31), and had not in that time ever returned to, nor had any carnal intercourse with him, but had been gotten with child by one of her adulterers, and been delivered of such child, which child being, as is notoriously known, begotten in adultery, and born during the espousals" between her and Lord Parr, "by the law of this realm is inheritable, and may pretend to inherit all, &c.;" and the Act therefore declares the said child to be a bastard.

Note 1. The Act, which is styled in the Lords' Journals, a Bill "to bar and make base and bastards the children which be, or shall be borne in adulteiy by the Lady Anne, wife of the Lord Parr," was read a first time on the 15th March 1543, bat it appears to have been altered by the Commons. — Lords' Journalls, I., 217. 223. 224. 230. 233. In the 6th Edw. VI., 1552, a Bill passed for annulling Lord Parr's (then Marquis of Northampton) marriage with Lady Anne Bourchier, and confirming his marriage with Elisabeth, daughter of Lord Cobham, and for the legitimation of the children that shall be had between them; but the Earl of Derby, the Bishops of Norwich and Carlisle, and Lord Stourton dissented. — Ibid, p. 409.418. The Statute of the 6 Edw. VI was, however, repealed in the 1st of Mary, 1555.

In the same year, a similar Act was passed to bastardize the children of Elizabeth Lady Burgh (age 31), the widow of Sir Thomas Burgh, eldest son of Thomas Lord Burgh (age 55), who had died in the lifetime of his father. After his son's death Lord Burgh obtained an Act [See Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic Henry VIII 1543 January], which stated, "that during the life of her husband she had lived in adultery, not regarding the company of her husband, and in that time had brought forth three children, begotten by other persons than her said husband during the espousals," &c. "as she had confessed, which children being so gotten and bom in adultery, during the said espousals, by the laws of this realm, be legitimate, and toill be inheritable and inherit, &c. after the death of the said Lord Burgh;" and the Act proceeds to declare the said three children to be bastards¹.

Note 1. This Bill, which is described as "a Bill to disinherit the children, and to make base and bastards the unlawfully begotten children of the wife of the Lord Burgh's son and heir," was read a first time on the 8th March 1543. — Lords' Journals, I., 215. 217, 218.