Popery Act - Wikipedia

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2024-10-22 02:00:03

An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery (2 Anne c. 6 (I); commonly known as the Popery Act or the Gavelkind Act)[ 2] 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.[ 3]

Inheritance in traditional Irish law used gavelkind, whereby an estate was divided equally among a dead man's sons. In contrast, English common law used male primogeniture, with the eldest son receiving the entire estate. The 1704 act enforced gavelkind for Catholics and primogeniture for Protestants.

Two separate bills "to prevent the further Growth of Popery" were introduced in the parliamentary session 1703–1704. One originated with the Irish Privy Council and was referred on 4 July 1703 to the Attorney-General for Ireland;[ 1] the other was introduced as heads of a bill in the Irish House of Commons on 28 September 1703 and sent to the Lord Lieutenant on 19 November.[ 4] Under Poynings' Law, both bills were transmitted to the English Privy Council for approval.[ 1] Formally, one bill was vetoed and the other was returned to Dublin with amendments; a lack of surviving documentation makes it impossible to determine which of the two had which fate.[ 1] The approved bill was engrossed on 20 January, presented in the Commons on 14 February, sent to the Irish House of Lords on 25 February, and given royal assent on 4 March.[ 1]

Sir Toby Butler, the former Solicitor General for Ireland, a Roman Catholic, made a celebrated speech at the bar of the Commons denouncing the act as being "against the laws of God and man... against the rules of reason and justice". Other eminent Catholic lawyers like Stephen Rice also denounced the measure but to no avail.