Naturalization Act 1739
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
(13 Geo. 2) C A P. VII.
'WH E R E A S the Increase of People is a Means of advancing the Wealth and Strength of any Nationor Country: And whereas many Foreigners and Strangers from the Lenity of our Government, the Purity of our Religion, the Benefit of our Laws, the Advantages of our Trade, and the Security of our Property, might be induced to come and settle in some of his Majesty's Colonies inAmerica , if they were made Partakers of the Advantages and Privileges which the natural born Subjects of this Realm do enjoy;' Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty's by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the first DayofJune in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty, all Persons born out of the Ligeance of his Majesty, his Heirs or Successors, who have inhabited and resided, or shall inhabit or reside, for the Space of seven Years or more, in any of his Majesty's Colonies in America , and shall not have been absent out of some of the said Colonies for a longer Space than two Months at any one Time during the said seven Years, and shall take and subscribe the Oaths, and make, repeat, and subscribe the Declaration appointed by an Act made in the first Year of the Reign of his late Majesty King George the First, intituled, An Act for the further Security of his Majesty's Person and Government, and the Succession of the Crown in the Heirs of the late PrincessSophia , being Protestants; and for extinguishing the Hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales, his open and secret Abettors ; or, being of the People called Quakers , shall make and subscribe the Declaration of Fidelity, and take and affirm the Effect of the Abjuration Oath, appointed and prescribed by an Act made in the eighth Year of the Reign of his said late Majesty, intituled, Quakers,such Forms of Affirmation or Declaration, as may remove the Difficulties which many of them lie under ; and also make and subscribe the Profession of his Christian Belief, appointed and prescribed by an Act made in the first Year of the Reign of their late Majesties King William and Queen Mary , intituled, An Act for exempting their Majesties Protestant Subjects from the Penalties of certain Laws ; before the Chief Judge, or other Judge of the Colony wherein such Persons respectively have so inhabited and resided, or shall so inhabit and reside, shall be deemed, adjudged, and taken to be, his Majesty's natural-born Subjects of this Kingdom, to all Intents, Constructions, and Purposes, as if they, and every of them, had been or were born within this Kingdom; which said Oath or Affirmation and Subscription of the said Declarations respectively the Chief Judge or other Judge of every of the said respective Colonies is hereby enabled and impowered to administer and take; and the...
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