What does "paid" mean in the context of an illegitimate child's birth record in 1818?

Question

Hello all! I'm working on adding my husband's family tree to WikiTree, and just created a bio for his 3rd great-grandfather Ammi Ruamah Smith (1764-1836) who lived in Ipswich, Mass.

I ran across an oddity in the town birth records for his children -- a single sentence above the records for his other children that says: "Horace Illegitimate Son of Betsey Ross born April 13th 1818." This sentence is also marked "paid" in the margin. Does this mean Ammi had an illegitimate child with Betsey? What does "paid" mean in that context?

Here's a link to the record (which is indexed wrong so ignore that) and the birth records are in the middle of the righthand page. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29G-1HF2

Answer 1

There were financial penalties associated with illegitimate child births. Colonial American bastardy laws - Wikipedia

THE BASTARDY LAWS AMENDMENT ACT, 1872.

Comments

Fascinating! Does this mean there might be court records about the situation? My husband's ancestor (Ammi's son Charles William Smith) named his second child Horace and that name was passed on twice more, so I wonder if the illegitimate Horace was included into their family.

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Heavy on the "might be". Infanticide to abandonment, pregnant women going to stay, extended periods, with family, returning home without child was fairly common in such cases. If a fine was "paid", that might be indication of a record.

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Thank you! I'll see if I can find anything in the court records.

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Thanks, Bob, for the best answer!