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Poor Relief Act 1722

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30-733: The Poor Relief Act 1722 ( 9 Geo. 1 . c. 7), also known as the Workhouse Test Act 1722 , Workhouse Test Act 1723 or Knatchbull's Act , was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain . It was titled "An Act for Amending the Laws relating to the Settlement, Employment, and Relief of the Poor". The Act repeated the clause of the Poor Relief Act 1691 that ordered that in every parish

60-640: A short title ; however, some of these acts have subsequently been given a short title by acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (such as the Short Titles Act 1896 ). Before the Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793 came into force on 8 April 1793, acts passed by the Parliament of Great Britain were deemed to have come into effect on the first day of the session in which they were passed. Because of this,

90-402: A book should be kept, registering the names of everyone receiving relief and the reasons why. No one else was permitted to receive relief (except in cases of disease, plague or smallpox ) except by authority of a justice of the peace who lived in or near the parish or who was visiting during quarter sessions . The Act claimed that "many persons have applied to some justices of peace without

120-728: A newly enfranchised Catholic majority would drastically change the character of the Irish government and parliament also contributed to a desire from London to merge the Parliaments. According to historian James Stafford, an Enlightenment critique of Empire in Ireland laid the intellectual foundations for the Acts of Union. He writes that Enlightenment thinkers connected "the exclusion of the Irish Kingdom from free participation in imperial and European trade with

150-637: The Constitution of 1782 . By this time access to institutional power in Ireland was restricted to a small minority: the Anglo-Irish of the Protestant Ascendancy . Frustration at the lack of reform among the Catholic majority eventually led, along with other reasons, to a rebellion in 1798 , involving a French invasion of Ireland and the seeking of complete independence from Great Britain. This rebellion

180-611: The Constitution of 1782 . Many members of the Irish Parliament jealously guarded that autonomy (notably Henry Grattan ), and a motion for union was legally rejected in 1799. Only Anglicans were permitted to become members of the Parliament of Ireland though the great majority of the Irish population were Roman Catholic , with many Presbyterians in Ulster . Under the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793 , Roman Catholics regained

210-615: The Irish Rebellion of 1798 . If Ireland adopted Catholic emancipation willingly or not, a Roman Catholic Parliament could break away from Britain and ally with the French, but the same measure within the United Kingdom would exclude that possibility. Also, in creating a regency during King George III 's "madness", the Irish and British Parliaments gave the Prince Regent different powers. These considerations led Great Britain to decide to attempt

240-513: The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union ) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . The acts came into force between 31 December 1800 and 1 January 1801, and the merged Parliament of the United Kingdom had its first meeting on 22 January 1801. Provisions of the acts remain in force, with amendments and some Articles repealed, in

270-486: The Parliament of Ireland passed a congratulatory address to Queen Anne , praying her: "May God put it in your royal heart to add greater strength and lustre to your crown, by a still more comprehensive Union". The Irish Parliament was both before then subject to certain restrictions that made it subordinate to the Parliament of England and after then, to the Parliament of Great Britain ; however, Ireland gained effective legislative independence from Great Britain through

300-560: The United Kingdom , but they have been repealed in their entirety in the Republic of Ireland . Two acts were passed in 1800 with the same long title : An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland . The short title of the act of the British Parliament is Union with Ireland Act 1800 ( 39 & 40 Geo. 3 . c. 67), assigned by the Short Titles Act 1896 . The short title of the act of

330-460: The list of acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland . The number shown after each act's title is its chapter number. Acts are cited using this number, preceded by the year(s) of the reign during which the relevant parliamentary session was held; thus the Union with Ireland Act 1800 is cited as "39 & 40 Geo. 3. c. 67", meaning the 67th act passed during the session that started in the 39th year of

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360-579: The list of acts of the Parliament of Scotland . See also the list of acts of the Parliament of Ireland . For acts passed from 1801 onwards, see the list of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . For acts of the devolved parliaments and assemblies in the United Kingdom, see the list of acts of the Scottish Parliament , the list of acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly , and the list of acts and measures of Senedd Cymru ; see also

390-660: The 12th century, the King of England had been technical overlord of the Lordship of Ireland , a papal possession. Both the Kingdoms of Ireland and England later came into personal union with that of Scotland upon the Union of the Crowns in 1603. In 1707, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were united into a single kingdom: the Kingdom of Great Britain . Upon that union, each House of

420-642: The Irish Parliament is Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 (40 Geo. 3. c. 38 (I)), assigned by a 1951 act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland , and hence not effective in the Republic of Ireland, where it was referred to by its long title when repealed in 1962. Before these acts, Ireland had been in personal union with England since 1542, when the Irish Parliament had passed the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 , proclaiming King Henry VIII of England to be King of Ireland . Since

450-484: The Irish Parliament, to sit in the United Kingdom Parliament. This was however blocked by King George III who argued that emancipating Roman Catholics would breach his Coronation Oath , and was not realised until the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 . The traditionally separate Irish Army , which had been funded by the Irish Parliament, was merged into the larger British Army . In the first Parliament of

480-711: The Union Jack, it combined the flags of St George's Cross (which was deemed to include Wales ) and the St Andrew's Saltire of Scotland with the St Patrick's Saltire to represent Ireland. At the same time, a new Royal Title was adopted ('GEORGE the THIRD by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith'), and a new shield of arms. In adopting these,

510-514: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the members of the House of Commons were not elected afresh. By royal proclamation authorised by the Act, all the members of the last House of Commons from Great Britain took seats in the new House, and from Ireland 100 members were chosen from the last Irish House of Commons: two members from each of the 32 counties and the two largest boroughs, and one from each of

540-464: The benefit of Parishes their work, labour, and service". Where a parish could not afford to maintain a workhouse on their own, the Act permitted the parish to join other parishes in purchasing a building for this purpose, so long as it had the permission of the vestry and a local Justice of the Peace. If a poor person refused to be lodged in a workhouse, the Act ordered them to be "put out of the book in which

570-424: The exclusion of its Catholic subjects, under the terms of the 'Penal Laws', from the benefits of property and political representation." These critiques were used to justify a parliamentary union between Britain and Ireland. Complementary acts were enacted by the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland. The Parliament of Ireland had recently gained a large measure of legislative independence under

600-399: The knowledge of any officers of the parish, and thereby, upon untrue suggestions, and sometimes upon false and frivolous pretences, have obtained relief, which hath greatly contributed to the increase of the parish rates". To rectify this, the Act ordered that no justice of the peace could award poor relief until the recipient had taken an oath on the reason why they needed to claim relief. This

630-540: The merger of both kingdoms and Parliaments. The final passage of the Act in the Irish House of Commons turned on an about 16% relative majority, garnering 58% of the votes, and similar in the Irish House of Lords , in part per contemporary accounts through bribery with the awarding of peerages and honours to critics to get votes. The first attempt had been defeated in the Irish House of Commons by 109 votes to 104, but

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660-414: The names of persons who ought to receive relief are registered, and [they] shall not be entitled to ask or receive relief from the churchwardens and overseers". 9 Geo. 1 Interregnum (1642–1660) Rescinded (1639–1651) This is a complete list of acts of the Parliament of Great Britain for the year 1722 . For acts passed until 1707, see the list of acts of the Parliament of England and

690-476: The next 31 largest boroughs and from Dublin University , chosen by lot. The other 84 Irish parliamentary boroughs were disfranchised; all were pocket boroughs , whose patrons received £15,000 compensation for the loss of what was considered their property. The Union Flag, created as a consequence of the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800, still remains the flag of the United Kingdom . Called

720-409: The reign of George III and which finished in the 40th year of that reign. Note that the modern convention is to use Arabic numerals in citations (thus "41 Geo. 3" rather than "41 Geo. III"). Acts of the last session of the Parliament of Great Britain and the first session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom are both cited as "41 Geo. 3". Acts passed by the Parliament of Great Britain did not have

750-480: The right to vote if they owned or rented property worth £2 annually. Wealthy Catholics were strongly in favour of union in the hope for rapid religious emancipation and the right to sit as MPs, which would only come to pass under the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 . From the perspective of Great Britain's elites, the union was desirable because of the uncertainty that followed the French Revolution of 1789 and

780-529: The second vote in 1800 passed by 158 to 115. The Acts of Union were two complementary Acts, namely: They were passed on 2 July 1800 and 1 August 1800 respectively, and came into force on 1 January 1801. They ratified eight articles which had been previously agreed by the British and Irish parliaments: Part of the appeal of the Union for many Irish Catholics was the promise of Catholic emancipation , allowing Roman Catholic MPs, who had not been permitted to sit in

810-419: The years given in the list below may in fact be the year before a particular act was passed. The first session of the 6th Parliament of Great Britain , which met from 9 October 1722 until 27 May 1723. This session was also traditionally cited as 9 G. 1 . Acts of Union 1800 The Acts of Union 1800 were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united

840-571: Was applicable in cases where the overseers or the vestry had refused someone relief and the Act ordered that the Justice of the Peace was first required to summon the overseer to discover why that relief had been refused. The Act reiterated the need for the Justice of the Peace to register this relief and stipulated that such relief should continue only so long as the causes for it continued. Any overseer or parish officer who awarded relief without first registering it "except upon sudden and emergent occasions"

870-463: Was crushed with much bloodshed, and the motion for union was motivated at least in part by the belief that the union would alleviate the political rancour that led to the rebellion. The rebellion was felt to have been exacerbated as much by brutally reactionary loyalists as by United Irishmen (anti-unionists). Furthermore, Catholic emancipation was being discussed in Great Britain, and fears that

900-470: Was to be punished by forfeiting and paying £5 to be used for the poor of the parish. The Act also empowered churchwardens and overseers (with the consent of the vestry) "to purchase or hire any house or houses, and to contract with any persons for the lodging, keeping, maintaining and employing any or all such poor persons in their respective parishes, etc., as shall desire to receive relief, and there to keep, maintain, and employ all such poor persons, and take

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