I’m just catching up on reading old email, and found the October discussion of adoption.  I don’t know of any court ordered adoptions, but certainly there were many court approved adoptions prior to 1912.  Common law provided for formal adoptions since ancient times, although the rights of adopted children were limited.   By the mid 19th century, there were dozens societies helping children, not necessarily orphans, find new homes.  Departments of Public Charities, National Family Finding Society, Orphan Trains,  Hope House,  C. Brice, Harriett Beecher Stow’s father, and others were actively fostering legal adoption.

  Massachusetts, due to public pressure,  passed the “Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act” in 1851.  It was based on common law principals practiced in Virginia, and many states followed suit.  Virginia didn’t pass statutes until the late 19th century.   The original Virginia adoption statutes excluded children from inheriting property, unless they were “heirs of the body”.  In 1919 Virginia updated its adoption law,   principally by changing the common law principal that adoptive children could not inherit equally with children of the whole blood, or “heirs of the body”.    The 1851 statute and the current Virginia statute are remarkably the same.

  Some indentured children were considered “adopted”.  If a court book or file is labeled “Adoptions” , it is no doubt a list of children who were treated as part of the family, with the exception of inheritance of real property, in keeping with the legal meaning of the term.  That book – or collection of loose paper -would no doubt be of great interest to people studying the history of adoption.

  I’ll send the 1851 Statute in another email.

  Langdon Hagen-Long


Paul Drake <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

  I am sorry, however, as stated, I believe the record will show that the very first court ordered adoption was in 1912 in Mass.  I have no doubt that your uncles and MANY, MANY others have been "adopted" over the centuries if - IF - you mean by that term that a non-parent undertook to raise a child born to someone else.

  On the other hand, if you speak of a court ordered adoption as we NOW know the term, I will stand by my statement that the first one in these United States was in 1912.  If you know of an earlier one, please let me have a court record citation in order that I may correct my book and the record.
  Thanks.  Paul

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