Treason Act 1746

The Treason Act 1746[1] (20 Geo. 2 c. 30[2]) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The long title is "An Act for allowing Persons impeached of High Treason, whereby any Corruption of Blood may be made, or for Misprision of such Treason, to make their full Defence by Council."

The Act commenced on 1 June 1747. It entitled anyone impeached by the House of Commons on a charge of high treason or misprision of treason to be defended by up to two "council learned in the law".

It was repealed on 1 January 1968[3] for England and Wales[4] by the Criminal Law Act 1967.[5] It was repealed for the rest of the United Kingdom[6] on 18 July 1973[7] by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973.[8]

  • Another Act, For vesting in His Majesty the Estates of certain Traitors, (20 Geo. 2 c. 41) stated that any traitor who had been convicted since 24 June 1745, or who had been attainted by statute before 24 June 1748, was to automatically forfeit all of their property to the Crown, without the need for any further legal procedure whatsoever.
  • A third Act, Traitors Transported, (20 Geo. 2 c. 46) made it a felony, punishable with death without benefit of clergy, for anyone who had been pardoned for treason and transported to America to return to Great Britain or Ireland, or to go to the dominions of the French or Spanish kings. It was also felony for anyone else to aid and abet a pardoned traitor to commit the same offence, or to correspond with one. However an indictment had to be brought within two years.[9]

See also

Notes
  1. This short title was conferred by the Short Titles Act 1896, section 1 and the first schedule.
  2. Also cited as c 41 in some statute books.
  3. The Criminal Law Act 1967, section 11(1)
  4. The Criminal Law Act 1967, section 12(1)
  5. Section 10(2) and Part I of Schedule 3
  6. Presumed because the contrary is not specified
  7. Date of royal assent
  8. Section 1(1) and Part V of Schedule 1
  9. Statutes at Large, vol. XIX, Danby Pickering, Cambridge University Press, 1765.
  • Statutes at Large, vol. XIX, Cambridge 1765.


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