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Bastard, adj. Begotten out of wedlock; illegitimate. 
—Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy, infeiifible, a getter 
of more bajlard children than.war is a deltroyer of men. 
Shakefpcare. —Spurious; not genuine; fuppofititious ; fall’e; 
adulterate. In this fenfe, any thing which bears fome re¬ 
lation or refemblance' to another, is called fpurious or baf- 
tard .—Men who, under the difguife of public good, do 
but purfue their own dellgns of power,, and fuch bajlard 
honours as attend them. Temple. 
By our Emlijh laws, a bajlard is one that is not only be¬ 
gotten, but born, out of lawful matrimony. The civil and 
canon laws do not allow a child to remain a ballard, if the 
parents afterwards intermarry ; and herein they differ mod 
materially from our common law ; which though not fo dried 
as to require that the child (hall be begotten, yet makes 
it an indifpenlible condition, to make it legitimate, that it 
(full be born, after lawful wedlock. Blackftone obferves, 
that the reafoii of our Englifh law is furely much fuperior 
to that of the Roman, if we oondder the principal end and 
delign of the marriage contract taken in a civil light. He 
then recapitulates feveral motives, which he concludes we 
may fuppole actuated the peers at the parliament of Mer¬ 
ton, when they reftifed to enadt that children born before 
marriage fhould be edeemed legitimate. iCom.4.56. \lnjl.ia\. 
[fa man marriesa woman grofsly big with child by ano¬ 
ther, and within three days after, (lie is delivered, the 
if!tie is no badard. 1 Danv. Abr. 729. If a child is born 
within a day after marriage between parties of full age, if 
there be no apparent impodibility that the luifband (hould 
be the father of it, the child is no badard, but fuppofed 
to be the child of the lnilband. 1 Rol. Abr. 358. As all 
children born before matrimony are balfards ; fo are all 
children born fo long after the death of the hufband, that 
by the ufual courfe of gedation they could not be begotten 
by him. But, this being a matter of fome uncertainty, 
the law is not exadt as to a few days. Cro. Jac. 451. On 
the whole it Appears that what is commonly conddered as 
tlie ufual period is forty weeks, or 280 days. But, though 
the child is born fome time after, it only affords prefump- 
tion, not proof, of illegitimacy. In fupport of this, the 
information of the late celebrated anatomid Dr. Hunter, is 
given. 1. That the ufual period is nine calendar months; 
(from 270 to 280 days;) but there is very commonly a 
difference of one, two, or three, weeks. 2. A child may 
be born alive at any time, from three months, bat we fee 
none born with powers of coming, to manhood, or of be- 
ingreared, before feveif calendar months, or near that time; 
At fix months it cannot be. 3. The dodtor faid he had 
known a woman bear a living child, in a perfectly natural 
way, fourteen days later than nine calendar months: and 
lie believed two women to have been delivered of a child 
alive, in a natural way, above ten calendar months from 
the hour of conception. This cafe of birth of children 
after the death of the hufband, gives occafion to the writ 
de ventre infpiciendo. But if a man dies, and his widow 
foon after marries again, and a child is bom within fuch 
a time, as that by the courle of nature it might have been 
the child of either hufband, in this cafe he is faid to be 
more than ordinarily legitimate, for he may, when he ar¬ 
rives to years of diferetion, choofe which of the fathers 
he pleafes. 1 Injl. 8. For this reafonby the ancient Saxon 
laws, in imitation of the civil law, a widow was forbidden 
to marry for twelve months. LI. Ethl. A. D. 1008. LI. 
Canut. c. 71. 
Children born during wedlock, may alfo in fome cir- 
cu indances be badards. As if the hufband be out of the 
kingdom of England (or, as the law fomewhat loofeiy 
phrafes it, extra quatuor maria ) for above nine months, 
fo that no accefs to his wife can be prefumed, her iffue 
during that period (hall be balfards. 1 Injl. 244. But ge¬ 
nerally, during the coverture, accefs of the lnilband (hall 
be prefumed, unlefs the contrary can be (hewn. Sal/t. 123. 
3 P. IVms. 276. Stra. 925. Although a feme covert may 
on a queflion of badardy give evidence of the fail of crimi¬ 
nal converfation, yet (lie (hall not be admitted to prove the 
T A R D. 
non-accefs of her hufnand. AnnaL 79. There are deter- 
minations by which it appears that the child of a married 
woman may be proved a badard by other circumftantial 
evidence than that of the hufband’s non-accefs, 4. Term 
Rep. 251.356. 
In a divorce "a menfd et thoro, if the wife has children, 
they are badards; for the law will prefume the hufband’ 
and wife conformable to the fentence of reparation, unlefs 
accefs be proved; but, in a voluntary reparation by agree¬ 
ment, the law will fuppofe accefs unlefs the negative be 
fltewn; and the children, primafacie , (hall not be edeemed 
badards. Salk. 123. In cafe of divorce in the fpiritual 
court d vinculo matrimonii, all the iffue born during the co¬ 
verture are badards ; becaufe fuch divorce is always upon 
fome canfe, that rendered the marriage unlawful and null 
from the beginning. 1 Injl. 235. If a man or woman mar¬ 
ry a fecond wife or hufband, the fird being living; , and’ 
have idue by fuch fecond wife or hufband, the iffue is 
bajlard. See Bolt, (Ed. 1793 by Conjl.) 397. pi. 521. 
A man hath ilfue a fon by a woman before marriage, 
and afterwards marries the fame woman, and hath iffue 
a fecond foil born after the marriage ; the fird of thefe is 
termed in law a bajlard eigne , and the fecond a mulier, or 
mulier puifne ; by the common law, as hath been faid, fuch 
bajlard eigne is as incapable of inheriting as if the father 
and mother had never married ; but yet there is one cafe 
in which his ilfue was let into the fuccedion, and that was 
by the confent of the lord and perfon legitimate ; as if 
upon the death of the father the bajlard eigne enters, and 
the mulier during his whole life never didurbs him, he can¬ 
not upon the death of the bajlard eigne enter upon his ilfue, 
Co. Lit. 24 5. To exclude the mulier from the inheritance, 
there mud not only be an uninterrupted poffedion of the 
bajlard eigne during his life, but a defeent to his iffue. Co. 
Lit. 244. 1 Rol. Abr. 624. 
No man can bahardize another after his death, that was' 
a mulier by the laws of holy church, and who carried the 
reputation of legitimate during his life ; for a man mud 
be badardized by the rules of the civil or common law : 
by the rules of the civil law, this perfon is by fuppofition 
legitimate ; and, if the common law be made the judge, 
he cannot be badardized ; for it is a rule of common law, 
that a perfonal defeft dies with the perfon, and cannot af¬ 
ter his death be objefted to his fuccelfor that reprefents 
him; and this rule of law was taken from the humanity 
of the ancients, which would not allow the calumny of the 
dead; as alfo from an important reafon of convenience, 
for pedigrees are often derived through feveral perfons, 
concerning whom there remains little knowledge or re¬ 
membrance of any thing, but only of their being ; and 
therefore it were an eafy matter to throw 011 them the af- 
perfion of badardy by any forged evidence, which cannot 
be confronted by oppolite proof; and fo it is fit to limit a 
time in which all proofs of badardy are to be difallowed. 
7 Co. 44. Jenk. Rep. 268. 1 Brownl. 42. Co. Lit. 245. In 
the cafe of Pride v. the earls of Bath and Montague, it 
was held that the rule that a perfon diall not be badardized 
after his death, is only good in the cafe of bajlard eigne and 
mulier puifne. 1 Salk. 120. 3 Lev. 410. If there be an ap- 
arent impodibility of procreation on the part of the huf- 
and, natural or accidental, as in cafe of the hufband be¬ 
ing only eight years old, or difabled by difeafe, there the 
ifille of the wife diall be a badard. 1 Injl. 244. 
The rights of a badard are very few, being only fuch 
as he can acquire ; for he can inherit nothing, being look¬ 
ed upon as the fon of nobody, and fometimes called jilius 
riiillius, fometimes Jtlius populi. Fortejc. de LI. c. 40. Yet 
he may gain a filename by reputation, though he has none 
by inheritance. ilMl.3,123, Where a remainder is li¬ 
mited to the elded fon of Jane S. whether legitimate or 
illegitimate, and (lie hath iffue, a badard fhall take this 
remainder, becaufe he acquires the denomination of her 
iffue by being born of her body ; and fo it was never un¬ 
certain, who was defigned by this remainder. Noy, 35. If 
parents are married, and afterwards divorced, this gives 
