Did child adoption exist when henry VIII was alive?

Question

help ??

Answer 1

They didn't have adoption where you would go to court and get a legal document. In practice, people did adopt. It was the norm for family to take in their relatives children.

Until Henry VIII threw the Catholic church out of England and started the Church of England, the Catholic church provided most social services. The monasteries and convents took care of the sick, homeless and orphaned. The church didn't normally adopt out the children but did sometimes place them in homes to be "fostered" or when they were old enough would apprentice them out. An apprentice would live with their master's family and be taught a trade. A child could be apprenticed out at a very young age, as early as 8.

It wasn't until fairly recent times that children were treated separately from adults, as they are now. There wasn't much of a childhood until just the last two hundred years. Children were looked upon as miniature adults and put to work as soon as they were capable of doing anything useful.

Answer 2

Yes, but not what you would expect today. It was quite normal to foster a son to another family - usually the child would be taken from home to live with someone else in order to learn the ways of the court, or to become a squire, or to learn church law. This was done among the upper classes. The lower classes appprenticed their children, basically gave the kids to a merchant, blacksmith, tailor (and sometimes had to pay the guy to take the kid) in order to learn a trade. Also, if one's family was destroyed, it was not unusual for relatives to take them in.

Answer 3

In a fashion. If a child's parents died or were killed, relatives would take in any children, if not that a close family friend would. There were very few orphanages because the communities were much closer.

Answer 4

Yes but now the way its done today. Family members would take in orphan children or someone in the village where they lived would.

Answer 5

I doubt it...