[FreedomNotSafety]

The better case to make is that children where a valuable commodity at the time and the male spouse had full control over them. He could send them away or keep them. This law stripped the bio dad of any rights. Now of course a father cannot simply punt a child to an orphanage.

The PBS show has a storyline and scene about Ross Poldark learning that another man is going to raise his son and Poldark could do nothing about it.

[Rockingham]

Perhaps those motives and considerations were at work in some instances, but they were not the reasons that courts relied on for that legal rule. The legitimacy and credibility of the judicial process are essential parts of its working capital. Judges have an acute awareness of the risks of straying into controversies in which facts cannot be definitively settled and courts do more harm than good by taking up a particular issue.

Moreover, even today, with scientific proof as to legitimacy easily available, proposals to make it possible for courts to routinely inquire into the paternity of children born to a marriage give most family court judges a sinking feeling and makes them hear voices saying "turn back now, fools, while you still can."