Natural child

Legitimacy has historically been the status of a child born to parents who were legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtained a legal divorce. Conversely, 'illegitimacy' or 'bastardy' has historically been the status of a child born outside marriage. Legitimacy has historically affected a child's rights of inheritance and the child's right to bear the father's surname or hereditary title. The prefix 'Fitz-' added to a surname (e.g., FitzRoy) has sometimes denoted that a child's parents were not married at the time of birth.In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don't baptise the children of single mothers because they weren't conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today's hypocrites. Those who clericalise the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it's baptised! shows that for many people it is not of great importance their union is a legal marriage or consensual union. This clear changes in value orientations and less social pressure for marriage. Legitimacy has historically been the status of a child born to parents who were legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtained a legal divorce. Conversely, 'illegitimacy' or 'bastardy' has historically been the status of a child born outside marriage. Legitimacy has historically affected a child's rights of inheritance and the child's right to bear the father's surname or hereditary title. The prefix 'Fitz-' added to a surname (e.g., FitzRoy) has sometimes denoted that a child's parents were not married at the time of birth. The importance of legitimacy has decreased considerably – in many jurisdictions, has ceased to be a legal concept altogether – with the increasing economic independence of women, the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the fall of totalitarian regimes, and the declining influence of churches on family life. Births outside marriage represent the majority in many countries of western Europe and in many former European colonies. Stigmatization based on parents' marital status, e.g. as by use of the word 'bastard', is now considered offensive. England's Statute of Merton (1235) stated, regarding illegitimacy: 'He is a bastard that is born before the marriage of his parents.' This definition also applied to situations when a child's parents could not marry, as when one or both were already married or when the relationship was incestuous. The Poor Law of 1576 formed the basis of English bastardy law. Its purpose was to punish a bastard child's mother and putative father, and to relieve the parish from the cost of supporting mother and child. 'By an act of 1576 (18 Elizabeth C. 3), it was ordered that bastards should be supported by their putative fathers, though bastardy orders in the quarter sessions date from before this date. If the genitor could be found, then he was put under very great pressure to accept responsibility and to maintain the child.' Under English law, a bastard could not inherit real property and could not be legitimized by the subsequent marriage of father to mother. There was one exception: when his father subsequently married his mother, and an older illegitimate son (a 'bastard eignè') took possession of his father's lands after his death, he would pass the land on to his own heirs on his death, as if his possession of the land had been retroactively converted into true ownership. A younger non-bastard brother (a 'mulier puisnè') would have no claim to the land. There were many 'natural children' of Scotland's monarchy granted positions which founded prominent families. In the 14th century, Robert II of Scotland gifted one his illegitimate sons estates in Bute, founding the Stewarts of Bute, and similarly a natural son of Robert III of Scotland was ancestral to the Shaw Stewarts of Greenock. In Scots law an illegitimate child, a 'natural son' or 'natural daughter', would be legitimated by the subsequent marriage of his parents, provided they were free to marry at the date of the conception. The Legitimation (Scotland) Act 1968 extended legitimation by the subsequent marriage of the parents to children conceived when their parents were not free to marry, but this was repealed in 2006 by the amendment of section 1 of the Law Reform (Parent and Child) (Scotland) Act 1986 (as amended in 2006) which abolished the status of illegitimacy stating that '(1) No person whose status is governed by Scots law shall be illegitimate ...'. The Legitimacy Act 1926 of England and Wales legitimized the birth of a child if the parents subsequently married each other, provided that they had not been married to someone else in the meantime. The Legitimacy Act 1959 extended the legitimization even if the parents had married others in the meantime and applied it to putative marriages which the parents incorrectly believed were valid. Neither the 1926 nor 1959 Acts changed the laws of succession to the British throne and succession to peerage and baronetcy titles. In Scotland children legitimated by the subsequent marriage of their parents have always been entitled to succeed to peerages and baronetcies and The Legitimation (Scotland) Act 1968 extended this right to children conceived when their parents were not free to marry. The Family Law Reform Act 1969 (c. 46) allowed a bastard to inherit on the intestacy of his parents. In canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have also been considered legitimate. Since 2003 in England and Wales, 2002 in Northern Ireland and 2006 in Scotland, an unmarried father has parental responsibility if he is listed on the birth certificate.