FATHER

FATHER, a term of relation denoting a person who hath begot a child. See PARENT and CHILD.

By the laws of Romulus, a father had an unlimited power over his children. Amongst the Lacedemonians, as we learn from Aristotle's Politics, the father of three children was excused from the duty of mounting guard for the security of the city; and a father of four children was exempted from every public burden. The Poppean law, amongst the Romans, granted many valuable privileges to the fathers of three children;

Father
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Fauna.

dren; amongst which one was, that he should be excused from civil offices, and that the mother should have liberty, in her father's lifetime, to make a will, and manage her estate without the authority of tutors.