5 Peter Laslett supplies the following regional data for illegitimacy ratios in England by period from 1581 to 1820:

Region

1581-1640

1661-1720

1721-80

1781-1820

West and northwest

3.6

1.4

4.6

6.2

North

2.9

1.3

3.5

4.2

South

2.1

1.4

4.0

4.5

Midlands

1.6

1.3

2.9

3.1

East

1.2

1.0

3.3

4.0

The “west and northwest” included much of the border country. As late as 1842-45, Cumberland had the highest recorded rates of illegitimacy of any county in England. See Peter Laslett, “Long Term Trends in Bastardy in England,” in Family Life and Illicit Love in Earlier Generations (Cambridge, 1977), 142-46.

6 Kercheval, Valley of Virginia, 269.

7Ibid., 294.