To stave off responsibility for caring for poor women and their children, unwed mothers were regularly brought before justices of the peace to answer sharp questions about their circumstances.

On 25 July 1866, Jane Horn admitted to Wilson County justice of the peace Solomon Lamm that her two-month-old child’s father was Barry Lawrence. Lamm ordered that Lawrence be arrested and taken to a justice to answer Anderson’s charge.

I have not been able to identify Horn or Lawrence with certainty.

Bastardy Bonds, 1866, Miscellaneous Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.