Infanticide and the law 1803–70

We saw in Chapter 1 that the Stuart laws against infanticide both in England and Scotland were becoming unworkable by 1800 through their very severity. They were reformed after 1800 to bring them more into line with modern sentiment. Lord Ellenborough’s Offences Against the Person Act 1803 ¹ decreed that infanticide was to be proceeded with like any other form of murder: the mother was innocent till proven guilty, thus reversing the presumption of the 1624 Act; and where a murder charge failed the jury could instead return a verdict of ‘concealment of birth’, with a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment. ² In Scotland an Act of 1809 ³ reduced the penalty for concealment of pregnancy to two years’ prison (and the law still applies! ⁴ ).