1858: 21 & 22 Victoria c.48: An Act to substitute One Oath for the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration; and for the Relief of Her Majesty’s Subjects professing the Jewish Religion.

[23d July 1858.]

WHEREAS it is expedient that One Oath should be substituted for the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration now required by Law: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen’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, as follows:

[Oath to be taken instead of Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration.]

I. Instead of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration, where the same are now by Law required to be taken and taken and subscribed respectively, the following Oath shall be taken and subscribed:

“I A.B. do swear, That I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and will defend Her to the utmost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatever which shall be made against Her Person, Crown, or Dignity, and I will do my utmost Endeavour to disclose and make known to Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, all Treasons and traitorous Conspiracies which may be formed against Her or them; and I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of my Power, the Succession of the Crown, which Succession, by an Act intituled “An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject,” is and stands limited to the Princess Sophia Electress of Hanover, and the Heirs of Her Body being Protestants, hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any Obedience or Allegiance unto any other Person claiming or pretending a Right to the Crown of this Realm; and I do declare, that no Foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Pre-eminence, or Authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this Realm: And I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian.”

“So help me GOD.”

[The Name of the Sovereign for the Time being to be used in the Oath.]

II. Where in the Oath hereby appointed the Name of Her present Majesty is expressed or referred to, the Name of the Sovereign of this Kingdom for the Time being, by virtue of the Act “for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject,” shall be substituted from Time to Time with proper Words of Reference thereto.

[Oath appointed by this Act to be taken in the same Cases and in like Manner as the present Oaths.]

III. The Oath hereby appointed shall be taken and subscribed in the same Cases, and by and before the same Persons, and at the same Times and Places, as the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration are respectively now directed to be taken, and taken and subscribed; and the taking and subscribing of the Oath hereby appointed shall have the like Effect as the taking, and taking and subscribing respectively of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration would have had if this Act had not been passed; and the Refusal, Neglect, or Omission to take and subscribe the Oath hereby appointed shall be attended with the like Disabilities, Incapacities, Penalties, Liabilities, and Consequences as now by Law provided in the Case of Refusal, Neglect, or Omission to take, or take and subscribe respectively the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration; and all Provisions now in force shall be construed and take effect accordingly: Provided always, that no Person, having before the Commencement of this Act taken the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration, shall be required to take and subscribe the Oath hereby appointed, unless and until he would be by Law required to take the said Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration in case this Act had not been passed.

[Form of Affirmation for Quakers, &c.]

IV. Provided always, That every Person of the Persuasion of the People called Quakers, and every other Person now by Law permitted to make his solemn Affirmation or Declaration instead of taking an Oath, shall, instead of taking and subscribing the Oath hereby appointed, make and subscribe a solemn Affirmation in the Form of the Oath hereby appointed, substituting the Words “solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm” for the Word “swear,” and omitting the Words “And I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian. So help me God;” and the making and subscribing of such Affirmation by a Person herein-before authorized to make and subscribe the same, with such Omission as aforesaid, shall have the same Force and Effect as the taking and subscribing by other Persons of the Oath hereby appointed.

[Persons professing the Jewish Religion to make Declaration in certain Cases.]

V. And whereas by a certain Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth,

[9 G. 4. c. 17.]

intituled An Act for repealing so much of the several Acts as imposes the Necessity of receiving the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper as a Qualification for certain Offices and Employments, a certain Declaration is prescribed to be taken in the Cases in the said Act mentioned: And whereas by an Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty,

[8 & 9 Vict. c. 52.]

intituled An Act for the Relief of Persons of the Jewish Religion elected to Municipal Offices, a certain other Declaration was permitted to be taken in certain Cases by Persons professing the Jewish Religion, instead of the Declaration required to be made and subscribed by the said Act of King George the Fourth: And whereas it is right to extend the Benefit of the last-recited Act to all other Cases in which the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth is by Law required to be taken: Be it enacted, That in all Cases which are not within the Provisions of the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her Majesty, in which any other of Her Majesty’s Subjects are required by Law to make and subscribe the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, Her Majesty’s Subjects professing the Jewish Religion shall be required instead thereof to make and subscribe the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty, which Declaration shall, with respect to such Person professing the Jewish Religion, be of the same Force and Effect as if he made and subscribed the said Declaration by the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, and shall be made and subscribed at the same Times and Places respectively, and preserved of Record in the same Manner, as the last-mentioned Declaration is now by Law required to be made, subscribed, and preserved.

[Act not to affect Roman Catholic Relief Act, 10 G. 4. c. 7.]

VI. Provided also, That nothing in this Act contained shall be held to alter or affect the Provisions of an Act passed in the Tenth Year of King George the Fourth, Chapter Seven, “for the Relief of His Majesty’s Roman Catholic Subjects.”

Source: Collection of Public General Statutes, 1858.

Further reading: Wikipedia.