General Pardon Act 1716

Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An act for the King's most gracious, general and free pardon.
Citation	3 Geo. 1. c. 19
Dates
Royal assent	15 July 1717
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1867
Status: Repealed

John Croker's medal to mark the Act, dated 1717

English, Scottish, Irish and Great Britain legislation
Acts of parliaments of states preceding the United Kingdom
Of the Kingdom of England Royal statutes, etc. issued before the development of Parliament 1225–1267 1275–1307 1308–1325 Temp. incert. 1327–1411 1413–1460 1461–1482 1483 1485–1503 1509–1535 1536 1539–1540 1541 1542 1543 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1551 1553 1554 1555 1557 1558–1601 1603–1623 1625 1627 1640 Interregnum (1642–1660) 1660 1661 1662 1663 1664 1665 1666 1667 1670 1672 1675 1677 1678 1679 1680 1685 1688 1689 1690 1691 1692 1693 1694 1695 1696 1697 1698 1700 1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 1706
Of the Kingdom of Ireland Before 1701 1701–1800
Of the Kingdom of Scotland Up to 1707
Of the Kingdom of Great Britain 1707 1708 1709 1710–1714 1715–1719 1720–1724 1725–1729 1730–1734 1735–1739 1740–1744 1745–1749 1750–1754 1755–1759 1760–1764 1765 1766 1767 1768 1769 1770 1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800
Law of the United Kingdom List of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Indemnity Act 1717 (3 Geo. 1. c. 19, also referred to as the Act of Grace and Free Pardon, is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain.

The Act was passed by both houses of parliament in July 1717, the last enactment of the session.^[1] It followed almost two years after the Jacobite rising of 1715, during and after which many Jacobites were taken prisoner. Those later convicted of treason were condemned to death, and some were executed, but by the Act most of the surviving Jacobite prisoners were freed and were permitted to settle either at home or overseas.^[2]

Hundreds of Jacobites were freed by the Act.^[1] The more notable included the Earl of Carnwath, Lord Nairne, and Lord Widdrington, together with seventeen gentlemen awaiting execution in the Newgate and twenty-six in Carlisle Castle. Some two hundred men captured at the Battle of Preston were released at Chester, also all remaining prisoners held in the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling. The Act did not undo the effect of any attainders, and confiscated estates worth £48,000 a year in England and £30,000 a year in Scotland; the dispossessed owners were not restored of their property.^[1]

There were some specific exceptions to the general pardon granted by the Act: Matthew Prior and Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford, had been held in the Tower of London before the Rising of 1715, and Oxford's friend Lord Harcourt and his cousin Thomas Harley. All members of the Clan MacGregor were also excluded from the Act's benefits,^[1] one of the targets of this last exclusion being the famous Rob Roy MacGregor.^[2] Philip Henry Stanhope noted in the 1840s that "a modern reader is shocked to find excepted 'all and every person of the name and clan of Macgregor'".^[1]

The passage of the Act was marked by the issuing of a silver medal, also struck in bronze, engraved by John Croker, chief engraver to the Royal Mint.^[3][4] On the obverse is the head of King George I, on the reverse is the winged figure of Clemency, who is standing, but leaning by her left elbow on a short stone pillar, surrounded by the words "CLEMENTIA AVGVSTI". In her left hand is an olive branch, while in her outstretched right hand she holds a caduceus, with which she touches the head of a fleeing snake, representing Rebellion. This image recalls the story of the caduceus of Mercury.^[5]

Notes