Daily AncestorReputed father
Reputed father means the man named or believed to be the father of a child born outside marriage, as in bastardy and support cases.
Reputed means supposed or generally believed. The reputed father, also called the putative father, was the man said to have fathered a child born to an unmarried woman.
Local authorities wanted him to pay for the child so the community did not have to, so his name often appears in court orders, bonds and overseer of the poor records even when the baptism names only the mother.
As seen in a recordCounty court bastardy bond, 1700s
Bastardy bond of Jos. Kerr, reputed father of the base-born child of Ann Dill.
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Reputed father." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/relationships/reputed-father. Last checked 2026-10-01.