An Act for the better securing the dependency of the Kingdom of Ireland on the Crown of Great Britain ( 6 Geo. 1. c. 5) was a 1719 act passed by the

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union 1707, Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a ...

which declared that it had the right to pass laws for the

Kingdom of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland (; , ) was a dependent territory of Kingdom of England, England and then of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1542 to the end of 1800. It was ruled by the monarchs of England and then List of British monarchs ...

, and that the

British House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest extant institutions in the world, its origi ...

had

appellate jurisdiction An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellat ...

for Irish court cases. It became known as the Declaratory Act, and opponents in the

Irish Patriot Party The Irish Patriot Party was the name of a number of different political groupings in Ireland throughout the 18th century. They were primarily supportive of British Whig Party, Whig concepts of personal liberty combined with an Irish identity that ...

referred to it as the Sixth of George I (from the

regnal year A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of rule, a t ...

it was passed). Legal and political historians have also called it the Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719 or the Irish Parliament Act 1719. Prompted by a routine Irish lawsuit, it was aimed at resolving the long-running dispute between the British and the

Irish House of Lords The Irish House of Lords was the upper house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from medieval times until the end of 1800. It was also the final court of appeal of the Kingdom of Ireland. It was modelled on the House of Lords of Englan ...

as to which was the

final court of appeal In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

from the Irish Courts. Along with Poynings' Law, the Declaratory Act became a symbol of the subservience of the

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland () was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until the end of 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the Irish Hou ...

, and its repeal was long an aim of Irish statesmen, which was finally achieved for Anglican Irish as part of the

Constitution of 1782 The Constitution of 1782 was a group of Acts passed by the Parliament of Ireland and the Parliament of Great Britain in 1782–83 which increased the legislative and judicial independence of the Kingdom of Ireland by reducing the ability of t ...

Background

In 1709 the Irish Court of Exchequer heard a lawsuit between Maurice Annesley and his cousin Hester Sherlock over which of them had the right to possession of certain lands at

Naas Naas ( ; or ) is the county town of County Kildare in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In 2022, it had a population of 26,180, making it the largest town in County Kildare (ahead of Newbridge, County Kildare, Newbridge) and the List of urban ar ...

County Kildare County Kildare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the Local gove ...

. The court found in Annesley's favour; Mrs. Sherlock appealed to the Irish House of Lords which upheld her appeal. Annesley then invoked the long-disputed jurisdiction of the British House of Lords to hear appeals from the Irish courts, and that house pronounced in his favour. The Court of Exchequer duly complied with the decree of the British House, but Mrs. Sherlock appealed again to the Irish house, which ordered the

Barons of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was a ...

to comply with its own decree and, when they refused, imprisoned them for contempt of parliament. The political uproar was out of all proportion to the importance of the lawsuit itself: in the words of John Pocklington, one of the imprisoned Barons, "a flame broke forth, arousing the country's last resentment (i.e. against the judges)".

Passage

The bill had its second reading in the Commons on 4 March 1719, where it was chiefly opposed on the grounds that it appeared to have no purpose beyond increasing the power of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. Other objections included an argument that the preamble and the enacting section of the bill were contradictory, and that Ireland had historically had an independent judiciary. It was supported by

Joseph Jekyll Sir Joseph Jekyll (166319 August 1738), of Westminster, was a British barrister, judge and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons for 40 years from 1697 to 1738. He became Master of the Rolls in 1717. Early lif ...

and Philip Yorke, and carried 140 votes to 83. It was then passed on March 26.''First Parliament of George I: Fifth session - begins 23 November 1719'', The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons: volume 6: 1714-1727 (1742), pp. 198-218
Online copy
Date accessed: 20 September 2006.

Provisions

Section I of the act noted that the

had recently "assumed to themselves a Power and Jurisdiction to examine, correct and amend" judgements of the Irish courts, which it held to be illegal. As such, it declared that the

was subordinate to and dependent upon the British crown, and that the king, with the advice and consent of the

, had "full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient validity to bind the Kingdom and people of Ireland". Section II declared that the House of Lords of Ireland had no jurisdiction to judge, affirm or reverse any judgement, sentence or decree made in any court within the Kingdom of Ireland, and that all proceedings before the house upon any such matter were declared to be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever.''The Law & Working of the Constitution: Documents 1660-1914'', ed. W. C. Costin & J. Steven Watson. A&C Black, 1952. Vol. I (1660-1783), p.128-9

Aftermath

The Irish House of Lords was understandably infuriated by the curtailment of its powers, and the Barons of the Exchequer, though they were soon released from custody, were subject to intense vilification. While many people thought that the Irish House of Lords had brought about the crisis by its own high-handed behaviour, the "Sixth of George I" remained a source of grievance for decades. The Declaratory Act 1719 provided a model for the American Colonies Act 1766, which is also known as the "Declaratory Act" and was a similar source of grievance in the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...

. The British defeat in the subsequent

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

prompted a more conciliatory tone towards Ireland. The Declaratory Act 1719 was repealed in its entirety by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782, which paved the way for the

establishing greater autonomy for the Irish parliament.

Background

Passage

Provisions

Aftermath

References

Further reading