Places of Religious Worship Act 1812
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
(52 Geo. 3) C A P. CLV.
[29th July 1812]
'WHEREAS it is expedient that certain Acts of Parliament, made in the Reign of His late Majesty KingCharles the Second, relating to Non Conformists and Conventicles, and refusing to take Oaths, should be repealed, and that the Laws relating to certain Congregations and Assemblies for Religious Worship, and Persons teaching, preaching or officiating therein, and resorting thereto, should be amended;' Be it therefore enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 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 passing of this Act, an Act of Parliament made in the Session of Parliament held in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Years of His late Majesty King Charles the Second, intituled, An Act for preventing the Mischiefs and Dangers that may arise by certain Persons called Quakers, and others, refusing so take lawful Oaths ; and another Act of Parliament, made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of His late Majesty King Charles the Second, intituled An Act for restraining Non Conformists from inhabiting in Corporations ; and another Act of Parliament, made in the Twenty second Year of the Reign of the late king Charles the Second, intituled An Act to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles , shall be and the same are hereby repealed.
II Places of Religious Worship certified and registered.
II. And be it further enacted, That, from and after the passing of this Act, no Congregation or Assembly for Religious Worship of Protestants (at which there shall be present more than Twenty Persons besides the immediate Family and Servants of the Person in whose House or upon whose Premises such Meeting, Congregation or Assembly shall be had) shall be permitted or allowed, unless and until the Place of such Meeting, if the same shall not have been duly certified and registered under any former Act or Acts of Parliament relating to registering Places of Religious Worship, shall have been or shall be certified to the Bishop of the Diocese, or to the Archdeacon of the Archdeaconry, or to the Justices of the Peace at the General or Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the County, Riding, Division, City, Town or Place in which such Meeting shall be held; and all Places of Meeting which shall be so certified to the Bishop's or Archdeacon's Court, shall be returned by such Court once in each Year to the Quarter Sessions of the County, Riding, Division, City, Town or Place; and all Places of Meeting which shall be so certified to the Quarter Sessions of the Peace shall be also returned once in each Year to the Bishop or Archdeacon, and all such Places shall be registered in the said Bishop's or Archdeacon's Court respectively, and recorded at the said General or Quarter Sessions; the Registrar or Clerk of the Peace whereof respectively is hereby required to register and record the same; and the Bishop or Registrar or Clerk of the Peace to whom any such Place of Meeting shall be certified under this Act shall give a Certificatethereof to such Person or Persons as shall request or demand the same, for which there shall be no greater Fee nor Reward taken than Two Shillings and Six pence; and every Personwho shall knowingly permit or suffer any such Congregation or Assembly as aforesaid to meet in any Place occupied by him, until the same shall have been so certified as aforesaid, shall forfeit for every time any such Congregation or Assembly shall meet contrary to the Provisions of this Act, a Sum not exceeding Twenty Pounds, nor less that Twenty Shillings,at the Discretion of the Justices who shall convict for such Offence.
III Teaching, &c. without Consent of Occupiers.
III. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That every Person who shall teach or preach in any Congregation or Assembly as aforesaid, in any Place, without the Consent of the Occupier thereof, shall forfeit for every such Offence any Sum not exceeding Thirty Pounds, nor less than Forty Shillings, at the Discretion of the Justices who shall convict for such Offence.
IV Preachers in and Persons resorting to Religious Assemblies, certified under Act, exempt from Penalties of 1 W. & M. Sess. 1. c. 18.
IV. And be it further enacted, That, from and after the passing of this Act, every Person who shall teach or preach at, or officiate in, or shall resort to any Congregation or Congregations, Assembly or Assemblies for Religious Worship of Protestants, whose Place of Meeting shall be duly certified according to the Provisions of this Act, or any other Act or Acts of Parliament relating to the certifying and registering of Places of Religious Worship, shall be exempt from all such Pains and Penalties under any Act or Acts of Parliament relating to Religious Worship, as any Person who shall have taken the Oaths, and made the Declaration prescribed by or mentioned in an Act, made in the First Year of the Reign of KingWilliam and Queen Mary , intituled An Act for exempting Their Majesty's Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England, from the Penalties of certain Laws , or any Act amending the said Act, is by Law exempt, as fully and effectually as if all such Pains and Penalties, and the several Acts enforcing the same, were recited in this Act, and such Exemptions as aforesaid were severally and separately enacted in relation thereto.
V Oaths, &c. taken by Preachers, &c. when required by Magistrate.
V. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That every...
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