An Act passed by Cromwell, providing for the banishment of all the officers of the Catholic army in Ireland, who, with their followers, withdrew to the Continent, to the number of some 30,000; the confiscation of a portion of the property of the remaining Royalists, and the distribution of their lands among the English adventurers. It further confined the Catholics to the right bank of the Shannon.
Settlement, Act of, 1661.
An Act passed after the Restoration, by which, and a supplementary Act passed in 1665, restitution was made to the dispossessed Royalist officers and some others, partly out of lands which had not been alienated by Cromwell, and partly out of land surrendered, to the extent of one-third of their estates, by the adventurers. The majority of the claims for compensation were disregarded, with the result that by far the larger part of Ireland remained in Protestant hands. This Act was repealed by the Irish Parliament summoned by James II in 1689.
Settlement, Act of, 1700.
The Act settling the succession after the death of Queen Anne upon the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her descendants. It provided for various limitations of the royal prerogative; among its provisions being that the sovereign should be a member of the Church of England; that Great Britain should not be called upon to defend any territories not being British territory, without the consent of Parliament; that the sovereign should not quit the realm; that no person born out of the realm should be capable of holding office under the Crown, and that no person holding office or enjoying a pension should sit in the House of Commons.
Settlement, Law of.
A law passed in 1662, providing that a labourer not born in the parish or resident therein for forty days, might be removed to the parish of his birth or former residence, on complaint of the overseers that he was likely to become chargeable to the rates. The object was that each parish should be compelled to support its own paupers, under the Poor Law of Elizabeth.
Settlement of India Act.
An Act passed in 1858, transferring to the Government of the Queen all the territories hitherto governed by the East India Company.