1775: 15 George 3 c.47: An Act for enabling his Majesty to license a Playhouse in the Town of Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster.

[Preamble.]

‘WHEREAS it may be proper that a Playhouse should be licensed in the Town of Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster;’ may it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same,

[Clause in Act 10 Geo II. repealed, with respect to Manchester.]

That so much of an Act of Parliament, which passed in the tenth Year of his late Majesty’s Reign (intituled, An Act to explain and amend so much of an Act, made in the twelfth Year of the Reign of Queen Anne, intituled, “An Act for reducing the Laws relating to Rogues, Vagabonds, Sturdy Beggars, and Vagrants, into One Act of Parliament; and for the more effectual punishing such Rogues, Vagabonds, Sturdy Beggars, and Vagrants, and sending them whither they ought to be sent;”) as discharges all Persons from representing any Entertainment of the Stage whatever, in virtue of Letters Patent from his Majesty, or by Licence from the Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty’s Household for the Time being, except within the Liberties of Westminster, or where his Majesty is rending for the Time being, be, and the same is hereby repealed with respect to the said Town of Manchester:

[His Majesty, &c. may grant Letters Patent for establishing a Playhouse in Manchester.]

And that it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, to grant Letters Patent for establishing a Theatre or Playhouse within the said Town of Manchester; which Theatre or Playhouse shall be intitled to all the Privileges, and subjected to all the Regulations, to which any Theatre or Playhouse in Great Britain is intitled and subjected.

Source: Ruffhead, Statutes at Large, volume 12.