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At that time, it would not just have been a matter of not being able to feed/clothe/raise a child. To have a child out of wedlock was social suicide. 'Disowned by her family' was an extreme fate - because it would not have just meant being kicked out of her parent's home - it would have meant being excluded from the wider community, unable to marry and participate in a family life - in a culture in which women had few rights, were able to command a fraction of the wage a man might earn, and unlikely to be hired anyway within the limited field of available female employment.*
* during the 18th C. and into the 19th C. in Britain, some working cultures, particularly in urban areas, had a different take on marriage, so I'm guessing that isn't a universal assessment, but if she was being disowned, it's unlikely she was from such a sub-culture.
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