The 1820 Bastardy Examination of Mary Scott, single woman

A view of Murchington

7 August 1820
Concerning a female child lately born in Chagford [Devon] of Mary Scott, single woman.
Mary Scott said her child was born on 22nd June, Richard Gidley of Throwleigh being the father.
[She was awarded £1 expenses for the birth and £2 further expenses on the overseer of Chagford's oath.]

Richard Gidley hath appeared before us and judged to be the father. He is to pay the above costs, which include maintenance of the child, to the overseers of the poor of Chagford, also 2 shillings weekly during so long as the bastard child shall be chargeable to Chagford parish. Mary Scott should also pay 1 shilling weekly while the child is chargeable in case she shall not nurse and take care of the child herself.

Richard Gidley of Throwleigh is probably the son of William Gidley and Jane Harris and from the Drewsteignton branch of the Winkleigh family. Care is needed, because there is another Richard Gidley of similar age (a year older) from the same small area. That Richard is the son of Oliver Gidley and Elizabeth May, and there has been great confusion between the two on the public member trees on Ancestry. I think the more likely candidate for "Richard Gidley of Throwleigh" named by Mary Scott as the father of her child is more likely to be the first mentioned Richard. The second Richard does not seem to have had any connection with Throwleigh, as he was christened in 1794 in South Tawton and, I think, buried in 1824 in Chagford. That was, however, Mary Scott's place of residence, so he can't be ruled out.

The first Richard definitely had a connection with Throwleigh. He was christened in Drewsteignton  (more confusion) in 1795, but in 1826 he married Dinah Herbert in Throwleigh. By then Mary Scott's child would have been aged 4, so perhaps he felt able then to take on a legitimate family. In the 1841 census he was a farmer in Murchington, part of Throwleigh parish. In 1850 he was doing well enough to take on an apprentice at the farm, and in the 1851 census he was described as a farmer of 30 acres at Higher Murchington Farm. In the 1850s it all seems to have gone downhill, and Richard and his whole family had emigrated to Sylvania, Lucas county, Ohio by 1860 when he was described as a RR [railroad] hand. His will was proved in 1870 in Lucas county.
Richard and Dinah had 11 children, of whom 3 died in infancy. The remainder, with the possible exception of the oldest daughter who was married in 1849, all emigrated with their parents to Ohio, but at least three of the sons later moved on to Michigan.

And what happened to Mary Scott's and Richard Gidley's illegitimate daughter? She was christened Jane Gidley Scott in Chagford three days after her birth, on 25th June 1822. In 1841 she was probably a worsted spinner in Chagford, where she married the same year, and by 1851 she was living with her husband, Josias Endycott, in Combeinteignhead, Devon. Strangely, in 1841 in the same woolcomber's household was Ann Gidley, a fellow worsted spinner, aged 15. She was probably a second cousin of Jane Gidley Scott, but I imagine most of Chagford was inter-related at that time.