The Maryland Toleration Act, also known as the Act Concerning Religion, was the first law in North America requiring religious tolerance for Christians. It was passed on April 21, 1649, by the assembly of the Maryland colony, in St. Mary's City in St. Mary's County, Maryland. It created one of the pioneer statutes passed by the legislative body of an organized colonial government to guarantee any degree of religious liberty. Specifically, the bill, now usually referred to as the Toleration Act, granted freedom of conscience to all Christians. Historians argue that it helped inspire later legal protections for freedom of religion in the United States. The Calvert family, who founded Maryland partly as a refuge for English Catholics, sought enactment of the law to protect Catholic settlers and those of other religions that did not conform to the dominant Anglicanism of Britain and her colonies.
An edict of toleration is a declaration, made by a government or ruler, and states that members of a given religion will not suffer religious persecution for engaging in their traditions' practices. Edicts may imply tacit acceptance of a state religion.
Laws prohibiting blasphemy and blasphemous libel in the United Kingdom date back to the medieval times as common law and in some special cases as enacted legislation. The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were formally abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and Scotland in 2024. Equivalent laws remain in Northern Ireland.
An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery was an Act of the Parliament of Ireland that was passed in 1704 designed to suppress Roman Catholicism in Ireland ("Popery"). William Edward Hartpole Lecky called it the most notorious of the Irish Penal Laws.
An Appropriation Act is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which, like a Consolidated Fund Act, allows the Treasury to issue funds out of the Consolidated Fund. Unlike a Consolidated Fund Act, an Appropriation Act also "appropriates" the funds, that is allocates the funds issued out of the Consolidated Fund to individual government departments and Crown bodies. Appropriation Acts were formerly passed by the Parliament of Great Britain.
The Blasphemy Act 1697 was an Act of the Parliament of England. It made it an offence for any person, educated in or having made profession of the Christian religion, by writing, preaching, teaching or advised speaking, to deny the Holy Trinity, to claim there is more than one god, to deny the truth of Christianity and to deny the Bible as divine authority.
The Offences Against the Person Act 1828, also known as Lord Lansdowne's Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated for England and Wales provisions in the law related to offences against the person from a number of earlier piecemeal statutes into a single Act. Among the laws it replaced was clause XXVI of Magna Carta, the first time any part of Magna Carta was repealed, and the Buggery Act 1533. The Act also abolished the crime of petty treason.
The Short Titles Act 1896 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Short Titles Act 1892.
Edward Elwall, born 9 November 1676, died 29 November 1744, was a mercer and grocer, born at Sedgley near Wolverhampton. He was a Unitarian and a Sabbatarian Baptist; that is, his day of rest and worship was the seventh day, the biblical Sabbath, rather than the first day of the week, the “papal pagan Sunday,” as he called it, which is kept by orthodox Christians. The people of Wolverhampton referred to him as ‘Jew Elwall,’ because of his Sabbath-keeping. He is said to have occasionally attended the Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church in London.
The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was the major Unitarian body in Britain from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature (1791), The Unitarian Fund for mission work (1806), and the Unitarian Association for civil rights. Its offices were shared with the Sunday School Association at Essex Street, on the site of England's first Unitarian church. In 1928 the BFUA became part of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, still the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism, which has its headquarters, Essex Hall, in the same place in central London.
The Criminal Law Act 1826 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated a large number of acts relating to criminal procedure.
The Toleration Act 1688, also referred to as the Act of Toleration or the Toleration Act 1689, was an Act of the Parliament of England. Passed in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, it received royal assent on 24 May 1689.
The Statute Law Revision Act 1873 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed for the United Kingdom statutes from 1742 to 1830.The act was intended, in particular, to facilitate the preparation of the revised edition of the statutes, then in progress.
The Statute Law Revision Act 1875 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act was intended, in particular, to facilitate the preparation of the revised edition of the statutes, then in progress.
The Criminal Statutes Repeal Act 1861(24 & 25 Vict. c. 95) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed for England and Wales and Ireland statutes relating to the English criminal law from 1634 to 1860. The Act was intended, in particular, to facilitate the preparation of a revised edition of the statutes.
The Criminal Statutes Repeal Act 1827 or the Criminal Statutes (England) Repeal Act 1827 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed for England and Wales statutes relating to the English criminal law from 1225 to 1826.
The Liberty of Religious Worship Act 1855 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Places of Religious Worship Act 1812 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It updated the Toleration Act 1688's system of registration for places of worship used by Protestant Dissenters except Quakers and set up a system of punishments for offenders against the Act. It also repealed the Five Mile Act 1665 and the Conventicles Act 1670.
The Criminal Statutes (Ireland) Repeal Act 1828 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed for Ireland statutes relating to the criminal law from 1225 to 1826.
The Customs Law Repeal Act 1825, also known as the Customs' Laws' Repeal Act 1825, the Customs Repeal Act 1825 or the Customs Act 1825, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed various statutes relating to customs in the United Kingdom from 1558 to 1823.
