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Where can I find old UK Parliamentary Acts?

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Abdul Goatherd

Abdul Goatherd

Premature anti-fascist
Aug 2, 2003
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Hoping some of you might know. I've searched the 'official' database:

http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/Home.aspx

But it has very, very few old ones. I suspect everything that's been changed or superseded has been dropped.

I need to find a copy of some of the statutes in their original form.

As always, Wiki is working on it, but, as you can see, some reigns are completely empty. :(

So I was wondering if anyone knew a good & reliable source, online or off, to look them up.

What I'm looking for is principally banking acts mainly (but not exclusively) from the 18th & 19th C., e.g. 7 Anne c.7, 15 Geo.2 c.15, 7 Geo. 4.c.26, etc.

(yes, yes, I know that means I should post this in the other forum, but since I am really asking a generic question about online (or offline) resources on old UK statutes, and this forum sees a little more traffic, I'm kinda hoping someone here might know :D)
 
Not my field so I can't be 100% sure, but it seems they would be included in the "Statutes at Large" series which can be found at Google Books.
 
Swamp Rat said:
Not my field so I can't be 100% sure, but it seems they would be included in the "Statutes at Large" series which can be found at Google Books.
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Thank you so very much!

Navigation looks a bit horrendous, but it should do. Million thanks! :D

EDIT: Oops. Apparently not. If they ammended it before the volume was printed, it was omitted and the reference is only to the newer statute. Grrrrr.

(e.g. 1799 Combination Acts (39 Geo. III, c. 81) is just referenced forward to a new act (39 & 40 Geo III c. 106), which doesn't really indicate what the original one looked like)
 
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Hmm, best way I've found is to use the national archives ( http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk ) or Portcullis ( http://www.portcullis.parliament.uk/Dserve/ ) or parlipapers ( http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing/index.jsp ).

For specific questions about the availability of specific bills and acts for access (or the text of them), I've found that archives@parliament.uk are always very helpful (although should be noted that you do have to pay for reproductions etc : http://www.parliament.uk/parliament...liamentary_archives/reprographic_services.cfm ).
 
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Zebedee said:
Hmm, best way I've found is to use the national archives ( http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk ) or Portcullis ( http://www.portcullis.parliament.uk/Dserve/ ) or parlipapers ( http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing/index.jsp ).

For specific questions about the availability of specific bills and acts for access (or the text of them), I've found that archives@parliament.uk are always very helpful (although should be noted that you do have to pay for reproductions etc : http://www.parliament.uk/parliament...liamentary_archives/reprographic_services.cfm ).
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Ah. OK. Thanks!

That sounds like a more serious option.

National Archives sends me to OPSI, and I've checked them out before. It has some stuff digitized, but not all of it (and only 1840s onwards - I've already noticed some stuff I want, and some stuff they haven't digitized :( )

[Why 1840s? Maybe its related to this note (on Portcullis):

"Due to the 1834 fire which burnt down the Houses of Parliament, we do not hold any records of the House of Commons before that date, apart from the manuscript journals and minutes, and printed journals of the House. Everything else created by the House of Commons prior to 1834 was destroyed by the fire."

:eek:

I presume the acts would be in the printed journals or somewhere. But damn, that's still a shame.

I probably won't be e-mailing anyone just yet as I am not sure which statute in particular I really need. Since I actually want, um.... all of them. Certainly all the banking statutes. And have a list of some fifty or so other statutes on taxes, tariffs, etc. I'd like to have a look at.

I guess I should harvest what I can from the "Statutes at Large" and "Statutes of the Realm" volumes, and only turn to bother the nice ladies at the reprographic services to fill in serious gaps. :)

I was just hoping there was some digitized volume somewhere that had it all, conveniently at my fingertips. :p
 
Abdul Goatherd said:
Aye.

I'm beginning to notice that "Statutes of the Realm" retain more original stuff than the "Statutes at Large".

Alas that site only has the volumes on the Statutes of the Realm for the 17th C., and Googlebooks has only bothered to upload the volumes for the 16th. I need 18th & 19th too. :(
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I gathered from my Google search that the "Statutes of the Realm" ends with the acts from the first years of the 1700s (1714?), because work on publishing it was discontinued. (Source, Source)
 
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Swamp Rat said:
I gathered from my Google search that the "Statutes of the Realm" ends with the acts from the first years of the 1700s (1714?), because work on publishing it was discontinued. (Source, Source)
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Thanks. That explains quite a bit. It might also explain the disjuncture between "S of the Realm" and "S at Large". Lots of old stuff just got repealed in between.

BTW, thanks for those great links. A very convenient summary. :cool:
 
Went through the trouble of finding, sorting & linking all the volumes of the 1762-66 edition of the Statutes at Large in googlebooks for myself. Sorted by reign & years, each volume is easier to track.

Thought I'd share it, since you were all so nice to me.... :)

Could be useful reference for the future, if you're ever need to look for something.

Statutes at Large

Evidently, there are many editions with this title. And the most popular is apparently one edited by Owen Ruffhead in the 1760s-70s. But (as the Rutgers link above attests) Ruffhead is missing a lot, and the most complete edition is that edited by Danby Pickering, that came out at the same time. So I will link only to the latter.

Pickering's Statutes at Large is divided into two parts:
- the first "historical" part (first 24 volumes, pub. 1761-66),
- the second "contemporary" part (vol. 25-46 publ 1766-1806).

[Note: the google geniuses didn't link the table of contents to the actual statutes, but it shouldn't be too hard to navigate.]

Ref:

Danby Pickering, editor, 1762-66, Statutes at Large, from Magna Charta to the End of the Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, Anno 1761. Cambridge. Pub. dates: 1762 (v. 1-3); 1763 (v. 4-8); 1764 (v. 9-13); 1765 (v. 14-20); 1766 (v.21-23); 1769 (v.24)

Statutes at Large

vol. 1 - Magna Charta, 9 Henry III to 14 Edward III (1225-1340)
vol. 2 - 15 Edward III to 13 Henry IV (1341-1411)
vol. 3 -1 Henry V to 23 Edward IV (1412-1482)
vol. 4 -1 Richard III to 31 Henry VIII (1484-1539)
vol. 5 -32 Henry VIII to 7 Edward VI (1540-1553)
vol. 6 -1 Mary I - 35 Elizabeth I (1553-1593)
vol. 7 - 39 Elizabeth to 12 Charles II (1597-1660) - note: interregnum acts not included.
vol. 8 -12 Charles II to 1 James II (1661-1685)
vol. 9 -1 William & Mary to 8 William III (1688-1696)
vol. 10 -8 William III to 1 Anne (1696-1701)
vol. 11 -2 & 3 Anne to 8 Anne (1703-1708)
vol. 12 - 8 Anne to 12 Anne (1709-1711)
vol. 13 -12 Anne to 5 George I (1713-1717)
vol. 14 -5 George I to 9 George I (1718-1721)
vol. 15 -9 George I to 2 George II (1722-1728)
vol. 16 - 2 George II to 9 George II (1729-1735)
vol. 17 - 9 George II to 15 George II (1736-1741)
vol. 18 -15 George II to 20 George II (1742-1746)
vol. 19 -20 George II to 22 George II (1747-1749)
vol. 20 - 23 George II to 26 George II (1750-1752)
vol. 21 - 26 George II to 30 George II (1753-1756)
vol. 22 - 30 George II to 32 George II (1757-1759)
vol. 23 - 33 George II to 1 George III (1760) +Appendix (toc, with some omitted acts from Henry V to W & M)
vol. 24 -Index to all Volumes

N.B. For Interregnum, Kingben's links (rather that g-books) have the main source: Acts & Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 (1911)
 
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Second Set

Statutes at Large cont'd (1761-1806)

So much legislation! Oh my, those Georgian MPs were bored! (almost as bored as I am :p).

This Second Set (vol. 25 to vol. 46) is distinct from the former, in the sense that it is no longer a 'historical' collection, but the volumes are being put out concurrently as legislation proceeds. It is published btw 1766 and 1806. Because there was so much legislation, Pickering started added indexes to individual volumes towards the end, then splitting volumes into "parts". Calendar also gets confusing. Gets a bit hard to manage at the end, particularly as googlebooks hasn't made all the final volumes available yet.

vol. 25 -2 George III to 3 George III (1761-1763)
vol. 26 -4 George III to 5 George III (1764-1765)
vol. 27 -6 George III to 7 George III (1765-1766)
vol. 28 -8 George III to 10 George III (1767-1769)
vol. 29 -11 George III to 12 George III (1770-1772)
vol. 30 -13 George III to 14 George III (1773-1774)
vol. 31 -15 George III to 17 George III (1775-1777)
vol. 32 -18 George III to 19 George III (1778-1779)
vol. 33 -20 George III to 21 George III (1780-1781) +index of earlier volumes (4 Geo.III to 21 Geo. III)
vol. 34 -22 George III to 24 George III (1782-1784)
vol. 35 -25 George III to 26 George III (1785-1786)
vol. 36 -27 George III to 29 George III (1787-1789) -index to this vol
vol. 37 -30 George III to 32 George III  (1790-1792) -index to this vol
vol. 38 -General Index from 1 George III to 32 George III
vol. 39 -33 George III to 34 George III (1793-1794) -index to 33 Geo.,index to 34 Geo.
vol. 40 -35 George III to 36 George III (1795) - calendar change?
vol. 41 -37 George III to 38 George III (1796-1797) -index of 37 Geo,index to 38 Geo
vol. 42, Pt. 1 - 39 George III (index to 39 Geo) (1798-1799) - another calendar change?
Vol 42 Pt. 2 - 39 Geo III (Local & Personal) +39 & 40 George III (just tables) (1800) - wtf?
vol. 43 Pt. 1 - 41 George III (1801) (index to 41 Geo)
vol. 43 Pt. 2 - not yet available
vol. 44 - not yet available
vol. 45, Pt. 1 -44 George II (1803-1804) -index
vol. 45, Pt. 2 - not yet available
vol 46 -46 George II (1806) -index

Methinks Pickering goes crazy or dies about now. There will be new volumes (from Vol. 47 (1807) onwards), but these are no longer credited to him.
 
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Abdul Goatherd said:
I probably won't be e-mailing anyone just yet as I am not sure which statute in particular I really need. Since I actually want, um.... all of them. Certainly all the banking statutes. And have a list of some fifty or so other statutes on taxes, tariffs, etc. I'd like to have a look at.
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If I was heading down to London to do some digging in the archives in the near future I'd offer, but sadly I think I might need to put off that til next year. Although if there's a couple of volumes which you need desperately I'd not mind spending a couple of pounds to order them from the British Library and type them out for you. PM me and such like if you can narrow it down :)

I was just hoping there was some digitized volume somewhere that had it all, conveniently at my fingertips. :p
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Hehe, I've always found it easier (albeit less expensive) to just go to wellhead rather than wade in the pools downstream. Ex was (is still but I don't care) a legal type and I recall many horrid nights of study in libraries to help her out as a student :D
 
Hi

You might need an Athens log in or similar access from a University library, but all the UK Parliamentary papers - acts, reports, etc etc, are on line at: House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/home.do

You might be able to access for free but you'll then have to pay for downloads, alternatively log in via any UK public library

Its got the lot since 1688 & is quite an awesome resource.
 
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