Before the introduction of short titles for (some) U.K. legislation in 1845, and the retrospective application of them in the Short Titles acts of the 1890s, some statutes were generally referred to not by their full titles, but by popular, but unoffical, names. Given how long-winded titles often were, it’s far more convenient to refer to ‘the Lords’ Act’ (1758) rather than (deep breath)

“An Act for Relief of Debtors with respect to the Imprisonment of their Persons; and to oblige Debtors, who shall continue in Execution in Prison beyond a certain Time, and for Sums not exceeding what are mentioned in the Act, to make Discovery of, and deliver upon Oath, their Estates for their Creditors Benefit.”

That’s such a mouthful that, when it was officially given the short title ‘Debtor’s Imprisonment Act, 1758’, the 1896 Short Title act condensed it to “An Act the title of which begins with the words “An Act for the Relief of Debtors,” and ends with the words “for their Creditors Benefit.” Which is still a mouthful, half the length of the original but twice as contrived.

If popular names are now redundant, that does not remove them from the historical record; and it is useful to know how acts were once referred to. Indeed, the use of short titles did not end the practice of naming an act after its sponsor. The list below has been compiled from Craies on Statute Law, 5th ed., and Chronological Table and Index to the Statutes, 2nd ed., (1873), with some added entries gathered in an ad hoc fashion.