Town of Hudson v. Hills
Superior Court of New Hampshire
This was an action of debt, on a bond dated May 4,1832, in the sum of |>300. Plea nil debet, with a brief statement. It was admitted that the defendants made the bond described in the writ.
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This was an action of debt, on a bond dated May 4,1832, in the sum of |>300. Plea nil debet, with a brief statement. It was admitted that the defendants made the bond described in the writ. The condition of the bond was, among other things, that Thomas Hills should save the town of Hudson harmless from the support and maintainance of a child of Hannah Sprakes, he having been charged as the father of the child, at May term of the Common Pleas, 1832. It appeared that in December, 1832- — the child being then of the age of about twenty-two months, and the mother destitute of property, and unable…
1Opinion of the CourtUpham, J.
It is well settled that the mother of an illegitimate child has a right to the custody and control of the child as against the putative father, and is bound to maintain it as its natural guardian. The King vs. Soper, 5 D. & E. 278; Ex parte Ann Knee, 4 Bos. & Pul. 148; Wright vs. Wright, 2 Mass. 109; Somerset vs. Dighton, 12 Mass. 383; do. Petersham vs. Dana, 429; The King vs. Mosely, 5 East 224, note; 10 Ves. Jun. 59; 4 Kent's Com. 2 ed. 216.
By our statute, the heirs of an illegitimate child in the ascending and collateral lines are its mother, and her heirs, (1 N. H. Laws, 353) and the act…
2Cases cited4 opinions
- Inhabitants of Somerset v. Inhabitants of DightonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1815
- Wright v. WrightMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1806
- People v. LandtNew York Supreme Court · 1807
- Carpenter & Rose v. WhitmanNew York Supreme Court · 1818
3Cited by1 opinion
- Brauch v. ShawSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1981