Promissory Oaths Act 1871

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1871 c. 48


Promissory Oaths Act, 1871

(34 & 35 Vict.) CHAP. 48.

An Act to repeal divers enactments relating to Oaths and Declarations which are not in force; and for other purposes connected therewith.

[13th July 1871]

Whereas divers Acts and parts of Acts relating to oaths and declarations have been virtually repealed by divers recent Acts, and in particular by an Act of the session of the twenty-ninth and thirtieth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter twenty-two, intituled ‘An Actto render it unnecessary to take and subscribe certain declarations as a qualification for offices and employments, to indemnify such persons as have omitted to qualify themselves for office and employment, and for other purposes relating thereto,’ and by The Promissory Oaths Act, 1868; and it is expedient, with a view to the revision of the statute law, and particularly to the preparation of the revised edition of the statutes now in progress, expressly to repeal the Acts and parts of Acts so virtually repealed, and other parts of the same Acts which have ceased to be in force:

Be it enacted by the Queen'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, as follows:

S-1 Repeal of Acts.

1 Repeal of Acts.

1. The Acts specified in the first parts of the first, second, and third schedules and in the fourth schedule to this Act are hereby wholly repealed, and the Acts specified in the second parts of the first, second, and third schedules to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent in the third column of those parts of the said schedules mentioned; provided that,

(1) (1.) This repeal shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect, or consequences of anything done or suffered before the passing of this Act, or any status, capacity, right, title, or indemnity existing, acquired, or accrued before the passing of this Act, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any privilege, exemption, or benefit to which any person would be entitled if this Act had not passed:

(2) (2.) Where by the recited Acts or this Act any person is prevented or relieved from taking any oath or making or subscribing, any declaration, the taking, making, or subscribing of which forms a condition precedent or subsequent to the attainment by such person of any office, privilege, exemption, or other benefit, or the due performance of any act, such person shall nevertheless, on complying with the other conditions, if any, attached to the attainment of such office, privilege, exemption, or other benefit, or the due performance of such act, be entitled thereto, and be deemed duly to have performed such act, in the same manner as if the condition relating to such oath or declaration, and any directions as to the certificate or registration of the taking of such oath, or making or subscribing such declaration, or otherwise, had been fulfilled and performed.

S-2 Persons before whom oaths to be taken.

2 Persons before whom oaths to be taken.

2. Whereas by The Promissory Oaths Act, 1868, it is provided that the oaths of allegiance and judicial oath should be taken by each of certain officers therein mentioned, in manner in which the oaths required to be taken by such officer previously to the passing of that Act would have been taken; and it is desirable, with a view to the revision of the statute law, to define the manner in which such oaths are to be taken: Be it enacted that each such officer shall take the said oaths before such persons as Her Majesty may from time to time appoint; or,

In England, before the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain or in the Court of Chancery, Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, or Exchequer, in open court before one or more of the judges of such court, or in open court at the general or quarter sessions of the peace for the county, borough, or place in which the person taking the oaths acts as justice:

In Scotland, in the Court of Session in open court before one or more of the judges of that court, or in open court at the quarter sessions of the peace for the county, borough, or place in which the person taking the oaths acts as justice, or in open court before the court of the sheriff of the county for which the person taking the oaths acts as justice:

In Ireland, before the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, or in the Court of Chancery, Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, or Exchequer, in open court before one or more of the judges of such court, or at the quarter sessions of the peace for the county in which the person taking the oath acts as justice.

S-3 Short title.

3 Short title.

3. This Act may be cited as ‘ThePromissory Oaths Act, 1871.’

S C H E D U L E S.

Note .—A description or citation of a portion of an Act is inclusive of the words, section, or other part first or last mentioned, or otherwise referred to as forming the beginning or as forming the end of the portion comprised in the description or citation.

Portions of Acts which have already been specifically repealed are included in the repeal in these schedules in order to preclude henceforth the necessity of looking back to previous Acts.

Portions of Acts not expressly repealed axe sometimes excepted from repeal in these schedules although they may either wholly or in part have become obsolete or otherwise ceased to be in force.

SCHEDULE ONE.

United KingdomActs of the Parliaments of England, Great Britain, and .

Note .—This schedule, so far as respects Acts prior to the reign of George the First, refers to the edition prepared under the direction of the Record Commission, intituled ‘The Statutes of the Realm; printed by Command of His Majesty King George the Third, in pursuance of an Address of the House of Commons of Great Britain. From original Records and authentic Manuscripts.’

I Acts wholly repealed .

PART I.

Acts wholly repealed .

Session and Chapter.

Title of Act.

20 Edw. 3. (1)

Oath of the justices.

20 Edw. 3. (2)

Oath of the clerks of the chancery.

13 Cha. 2. stat. 2. c. 1.

An Act for the well governing and regulating of corporations.

1 Will. & Mar. (3) c. 8.

An Act for the abrogating of the oathes of supremacy and allegiance, and appointing other oathes.

3 Will. & Mar. c. 2.

An Act for the abrogating the oath of supremacy in Ireland, and appointing other oaths.

1 Ann. c. 26. (4)

An Act for the relief of the Protestant purchasers of the forfeited estates in Ireland.

6 Ann. c. 66. (5)

An Act for the better security of Her Majesty's Person and Government.

8 Ann. c. 15.

An Act for explaining and enlarging an Act of the sixth year of Her Majesty's reign, intituled ‘An Act for the security of Her Majesty's Person and Government.’

10 Ann. c. 6. (6)

An Act for preserving the Protestant religion by better securing the Church of England as by law established, and for confirming the toleration granted to Protestant dissenters by an Act intituled ‘An Act for exempting their Majesties' Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the penalties of certain Laws,’ and for supplying the defects thereof, and for the further securing the Protestant succession by requiring the practicers of the law in North Britain to take the oaths and subscribe the declaration therein mentioned.

(1 ) 18 Edw. 3. stat. 4. in the ordinary editions.

(2 ) 18 Edw. 3. stat. 5. in the ordinary editions.

(3 ) Sess. 1 in the ordinary editions.

(4 ) Stat. 1. c. 32. in the ordinary editions.

(5 ) Chap. 14. in the ordinary editions.

(6 ) Chap. 2. in the ordinary editions.

Session and Chapter.

Title of Act.

1 Geo. 1. stat. 2. c. 13.

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 Princess Sophia, being Protestants, and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales and his open and secret abettors.

1 Geo. 1. stat. 2. c. 20.

An Act the title of which begins with the words‘An Act for encouraging’and ends with the words‘disaffected persons in Scotland.’

1 Geo. 1. stat. 2. c. 26.

An Act for continuing several laws therein mentioned relating to coals, hemp, and flax, Irish and Scotch linen, and the assize of bread, and for giving power to adjourn the quarter sessions for the county of Anglesea for the purposes therein mentioned.

8 Geo. 1. c. 6.

An Act for granting the people called Quakers such forms of affirmation or declaration as may remove the difficulties which many of them lie under.

9 Geo. 2. c. 26.

An Act the title of which begins with the words‘An Act for indemnifying,’and ends with the words‘and lessees.’

19 Geo. 2. c. 39.

An Act the title of which begins with the words‘An Act for the more effectual disarming’and ends with the words‘to take the oaths to His Majesty, his heirs and successors, and to register the same.’

18 Geo. 3. c. 60.

An Act for relieving His Majesty's subjects professing the popish religion from certain penalties and disabilities imposed on them by an Act made in the eleventh and twelfth years of the reign of King William the Third, intituled ‘An Act for the further preventing the growth of popery.’

43 Geo. 3. c. 30.

An Act to entitle Roman Catholics taking and subscribing the declaration and oath contained in the Act of the thirty-first year of the reign of His present Majesty, intituled ‘An Act to relieve, upon conditions and under restrictions, the persons therein described from certain penalties and disabilities to which papists or persons professing the popish religion are by law subject,’ to the benefits given by an Act of the eighteenth year of the reign of His present...

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