Indemnity Act 1717

{{About|the Act of Grace and Free Pardon which freed Jacobites|the Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates|1717–1718 Acts of Grace}} {{Short description|Act of the Parliament of Great Britain}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Use British English|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = General Pardon Act 1716 | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of Great Britain | long_title = An act for the King's most gracious, general and free pardon. | year = 1716 | citation = [[3 Geo. 1]]. c. 19 | territorial_extent = [[United Kingdom]] | royal_assent = 15 July 1717 | commencement = 20 February 1717{{efn|Start of session.}} | repeal_date = 15 July 1867 | repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1867]] | related_legislation = | status = Repealed | original_text = https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_FMDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA456 }} [[File:Clementia Augusti MDCCXVII.png|thumb|150px|[[John Croker (engraver)|John Croker]]{{'s}} medal to mark the Act, dated 1717]] {{British legislation before 1801}}

The '''Indemnity Act 1717''' ([[3 Geo. 1]]. c. 19, also referred to as the '''Act of Grace and Free Pardon''', was an [[Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)|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.<ref name=stanhope>[[Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope|Philip Henry Stanhope]], Henry Reed, ''History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles'' (1849), [https://books.google.com/books?id=zMFCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA206 p. 206]</ref> It followed almost two years after the [[Jacobite rising of 1715]], during and after which many [[Jacobitism|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.<ref name=brown>[[Peter Hume Brown]], ''A History of Scotland to the Present Time'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=R8w7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA154 p. 154]</ref>

Hundreds of Jacobites were freed by the act.<ref name=stanhope/> The more notable included the [[Robert Dalzell, 5th Earl of Carnwath|Earl of Carnwath]], [[William Murray, 2nd Lord Nairne|Lord Nairne]], and [[William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington|Lord Widdrington]], together with seventeen gentlemen awaiting execution in the [[Newgate Prison|Newgate]] and twenty-six in [[Carlisle Castle]]. Some two hundred men captured at the [[Battle of Preston (1715)|Battle of Preston]] were released at [[Chester]], also all remaining prisoners held in the castles of [[Edinburgh Castle|Edinburgh]] and [[Stirling Castle|Stirling]]. The Act did not undo the effect of any [[attainder]]s, 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.<ref name=stanhope/>

There were some specific exceptions to the general pardon granted by the act: [[Matthew Prior]] and [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer|Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford]], had been held in the Tower of London before the Rising of 1715, and Oxford's friend [[Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt|Lord Harcourt]] and his cousin [[Thomas Harley (of Kinsham)|Thomas Harley]]. All members of the [[Clan Gregor|Clan MacGregor]] were also excluded from the Act's benefits,<ref name=stanhope/> one of the targets of this last exclusion being the famous [[Rob Roy MacGregor]].<ref name=brown/> [[Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope|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{{'"}}.<ref name=stanhope/>

The passage of the act was marked by the issuing of a silver medal, also struck in bronze, engraved by [[John Croker (engraver)|John Croker]], chief engraver to the [[Royal Mint]].<ref>''The Numismatic Circular'', volumes 30–32 (1922), p. 467</ref><ref>[http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-100-102-847-C Medal (reverse), commemorating the Act of Grace of 1717] at web site of National Museums of Scotland, accessed 17 December 2013</ref> On the obverse is the head of [[George I of Great Britain|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 <small>"CLEMENTIA AVGVSTI"</small>. 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 (mythology)|Mercury]].<ref>New Gallery, London, ''Exhibition of the Royal House of Stuart'' (London: Richard Clay and Sons, 1889), p. 207</ref>

== Subsequent developments == The whole act was repealed by section 1 of, and the schedule to, the [[Statute Law Revision Act 1867]] ([[30 & 31 Vict.]] c. 59).

== Notes == {{Notelist}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Indemnity Act 1717}} [[Category:Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1717]] [[Category:Repealed Great Britain Acts of Parliament]] [[Category:Pardon legislation]]