or Ireland, or the dominions thereunto belonging (although he be naturalized or made a denizen) except such as are born of English parents, shall be capable to be of the Privy Council or a member of either House of Parliament, or to enjoy any office or place of trust, either civil or military, or to have any grant of lands or hereditaments from the Crown to himself or to any other or others in trust for him 1."

...

colonial

aliens

tion Act

Though the rights of denizens were thus limited they The were highly prized and eagerly sought after by the first trade Jewish settlers in this country; more especially because closed to the trade with the English colonies and plantations abroad, by the in those days the easiest avenue to the acquisition of large Navigawealth, had been effectually closed to aliens by the Navi- of 1660. gation Act of 1660 (12 Car. II, c. 18), which provided that "no alien or person not born within the allegiance of our sovereign lord the King, his heirs and successors, or naturalized or made a free denizen, shall . . . exercise the trade or occupation of a merchant or factor in any of the said places" (i. e. lands, islands, plantations, or territories belonging to the King in Asia, Africa, or America) upon pain of forfeiting all his goods and chattels. For the strict enforcement of this provision a clause was inserted in the Act of 1696 for preventing frauds and regulating abuses in the plantation trade, compelling the governor and commander-in-chief of every English colony or plantation to take a solemn oath to see that this and other provisions were punctually and bona fide observed 2.

1 12 & 13 Will. III, c. 2, s. 3.

2 See 7 & 8 Will. III, c. 22, s. 4. There seems to have been a fear that this Act would have shut out from the colonial trade persons already entitled to take part in it, such as denizens, and to close it to all except persons born within the realm or the plantations. The Jews therefore petitioned against the Bill; see Commons Journals, vol. XI, p. 440: "A petition of Isaac Correa, Isaac Pereira and Joseph Henriques, on behalf of themselves and divers other merchants, was presented to the House and read; setting forth That the Petitioners are informed, That there is a clause in the Bill for preventing Frauds and regulating Abuses

Jews made denizens

by Charles II.

The law was not relaxed until 1794, and then only in favour of aliens resident in places acquired by the right of conquest, and was finally repealed in 18251.

Very many Jews were made free denizens in the early days of the resettlement, and their admission to this higher status is a mark of the liberality as well as of the farseeing wisdom of those responsible for the executive government at the time. Mr. Carteret Webb, in an appendix to his well-known pamphlet, "The Question whether a Jew can hold land, &c.," gives a list containing the names of 105 Jews who obtained letters of denization during the reigns of Charles II and James II, and this list is by no means complete 2. The only condition as a general rule

in the Plantation Trade That no Foreigner shall use the Occupation of a Merchant or Factor, in any of his Majesty's Plantations, under a great Penalty; That such a Clause will be the Ruin of many Families, who by the Rigour of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions were forced to renounce their native Countries and shelter themselves under the Protection of the English Government, to which they have ever dutifully submitted: And praying That they may be heard by their Counsel at the Bar of the House, before the Passing of the said Bill touching the Premises." This was on Feb. 12, 169; on March 4 the French Protestants residing in London presented a similar petition. Both petitions were referred to the Committee of the Houses; see Com. Journ., XI, p. 491.

1 See 34 Geo. III, c. 42, s. 6; 37 Geo. III, c. 63, s. 5; 45 Geo. III, c. 32, s. 5; and 6 Geo. IV, c. 105.

2 Supra, p. 144 (note) and p. 158; The Return, &c., pp. 96 and 110. The lists of foreign Protestants and aliens resident in England published by the Camden Society in 1862 contain at p. 42 the following document: "Denization to severall persons [among them are some Jews of note]. Our will and pleasure is that you prepare a Bill for our Royall Signature to passe our Great Seale for the makinge the persons hereafter named, being Aliens borne, free Denizens of this our Kingdome, viz.": then follow the names of a great number of persons, including a number of Jews, seven of whom are included in Webb's list, but others not found in that list are Isaac Abraham, James Baruch Lonzada, Philipp Martines, Jone Mathias, Judith his wife, and Isaac their son, Judith and Frances Meres, and Samuel Sasportas. The document continues: "And that they have and enjoy all priviledges and immunityes as other free Denizens do, provided they and every of them do live and continue with their familyes in this our Kingdome of England or elsewhere within

attached to the grant of a patent of denization to a Jew was the taking of the oath of allegiance, in the form of which, as we have seen, there was nothing to which he could reasonably object1.

zation

ment.

Though the King by his letters patent could not grant Naturalithe full rights of a natural-born subject to an alien, by Act of these could be obtained from Parliament, which, in intend- Parliament of law, is assumed to be omnipotent. An alien born in Portugal, who came into England with Beatrice, Countess of Arundel, was naturalized by Parliament in the third year of Henry VI, but private Acts of Parliament by which naturalization was conferred upon an alien did not come into vogue until the reign of Queen Elizabeth 2. Naturalization differed from denization in that it had a retrospective effect; the naturalized person being deemed

oure dominions, and this sayd Denization to be forthwith passed under our great seale, without any Fees or other charges whatsoever to be payd by the sayd persons in the passing thereof. And for so doing this shall be your warrant. Given at our Court at Whitehall the 16 of December 1687. To our Attorney or Sollicitor Generall."

1 Though the King and his chief ministers were thus liberal in creating denizens, impediments to the carrying out the royal intentions were sometimes interposed by minor officials. Thus we find among the public records for the year 1677 a "Petition of Manuel Martinez Dormido of London Merchant and Daniel Bueno Henriques of Barbadoes, Hebrews, to the King. That His Majesty by warrant under his Sign Manual granted Petitioners letters of denization which have passed the Signet, but are denied the Privy Seal, Petitioners' religion being only objected, pray that said two bills may pass the Privy and Great Seals notwithstanding said objection, several of their nation having enjoyed lately the like privileges" (Col. Papers, vol. XLI, No. 146; Cal. S. P. America and West Indies, 1677-80, p. 201).

Both grants had been made on the same day, namely July 24, 1661, some sixteen years before. See Cal. S. P. Dom., 1661-2, p. 214, and ibid., p. 42. Also ibid., America and West Indies, 1685-8, p. 633, nos. 2019 and 2020, and ibid., Colonial, 1661-8, p. 49, no. 139. Dormido, who was made a denizen with his two sons Solomon and Aaron, is another name altogether omitted in Webb's list. He had come to England in 1654; see supra, p. 188; The Return of the Jews, p. 40.

' Viner's Abridgment, Tit. Alien (D) Naturalization, and Henriques on Aliens and Naturalization, pp. 38, 39.

Naturalization

confined

a subject natura, to all intents and purposes, as if he had been born so. So that his lands might be inherited by his son, though born before the special Act of Parliament was passed. And he was moreover free from any liability to pay the alien duties and the other restrictions to which, as we have seen, an alien made a denizen was liable. The clause in the Act of Settlement already recited however applied to him, so that his political rights were after 1714 greatly limited1.

It was in early times determined that these wide rights, in those days including full political rights, should be to Protes- conferred on none save those who professed the true tants by Protestant religion; to secure which a public Act of

a statute

of 1609.

General

Naturalization Acts.

Parliament was passed in the year 1609. It recites that "Forasmuch as the naturalizing of strangers, and restoring to blood persons attainted, have been ever reputed matters of mere grace and favour, which are not fit to be bestowed upon any others than such as are of the religion now established in this realm," and then enacts that no person "of what quality condition or place soever" shall be naturalized unless he have received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper within one month next before any bill exhibited for that purpose, and shall also take the oath of supremacy and the oath of allegiance in the Parliament house before his bill be twice read2. Thus a conscientious Jew, being unwilling to take the sacrament, could not obtain naturalization by means of a private Act of Parliament.

In addition various Acts of Parliament, all of which are now repealed, were passed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, conferring naturalization and the full

1 This clause of the Act of Settlement did not come into force until the accession of George I in 1714. In that year 1 Geo. I, st. 2, c. 4, was passed to prevent it being dispensed with in the private Act of Parliament granting naturalization. This last Act was repealed in 1844 by Mr. Hutt's Naturalization Act (7 & 8 Vict., c. 66), but clause 3 of the Act of Settlement is still unrepealed. See Henriques on Aliens and Naturalization, p. 40. 2 7 Jac. I, c. 2.

rights and privileges of British subjects (with the exception in the case of Acts passed after 1714 of the political rights reserved by the Act of Settlement) upon foreigners in return for benefits supposed to accrue to this country by reason of their carrying on certain branches of trade here or in the colonies, or being engaged in the public service for a definite period. For example, by the Act for encouraging the manufactures of making linen cloth and tapestry, passed in 1663 (15 Car. II, c. 15), all foreigners that shall really and bona fide set up and use in England any of the manufactures mentioned for the space of three years, should upon taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy enjoy all the privileges of a natural-born subject. This Act was not repealed till 1863, but though open to the Jews, for the oaths required did not include the oath of abjuration, does not appear to have been frequently taken advantage of by them. The Acts for the better supply of mariners and seamen gave similar privileges to foreigners who had served for two years or more upon a British ship of war or merchant or other trading ship during time of war, and no oath or other formality was required as a condition precedent to the acquisition of these rights, which were however subject to the disabling clause in the Act of Settlement already mentioned1. Of the provisions of these Acts also Jews could, but did not in any large numbers, avail themselves. On the other hand, the privilege of becoming British subjects, given in 1761 to foreigners who had for two years served as officers or soldiers in his Majesty's royal American regiment or as engineers in America, was strictly confined to Protestants, and those claiming it were bound to first qualify themselves by taking and subscribing the oaths, including the oath of abjuration, and also receiving the sacrament in some Protestant and reformed congregation 2. The benefit

1 See 6 Anne, c. 64 (37 Ruffhead), s. 20; 13 Geo. II, c. 3; and 20 Geo. III, c. 20.

2 See the statute 2 Geo. III, c. 25.