Books and Manuscripts

An Act for naturalizing such foreign Protestants, and others therein mentioned, as are settled, or shall settle in any of His Majesties Colonies in America
London: Printed by John Baskett, 1739. Folio. (8) pp. Disbound; slight darkening in top left corner of leaves.

A notable act of Parliament regarding the naturalization of Jews and Quakers residing in England’s American colonies. Known as the Plantation Act, the law hoped to encourage overseas settlement and allowed foreigners who had resided in any of Her Majesty’s American colonies for seven years to be naturalized after taking an oath of loyalty to the Crown and receiving the sacrament. Special provisions were made specifically for Jews and Quakers, such as exempting them from taking the sacrament, allowing Quakers to affirm their loyalty, and allowing Jewish individuals to omit the phrase “upon the true faith of a Christian” when taking their oath of allegiance. “Moreover, although the persons thus naturalized had their political rights limited by the Act of Settlement, yet in their case the incapacity to hold any office or place of trust or have any grant of lands from the Crown, applied only to offices or grants in Great Britain and Ireland, and not to the colonies or elsewhere. The Jews who had great interests in the American colonies, and more particularly in the West Indian Islands, freely availed themselves of the benefit of this Act, as can be seen from the lists of names of persons thus naturalized, which, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, the Secretary of each colony was bound annually to transmit to the office of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations for the purpose of registration.” (Henriques, H.S.Q., The Jews and the English Law, p. 240-41). The law thus extended rights to Jewish individuals in the Crown’s American and Caribbean colonies a whole 13 years before these same rights were granted to Jewish residents in England itself.