Levy en Masse Act 1803

The Levy en Masse Act 1803 (43 Geo. III, c. 96) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Bill, an amendment of the Defence of the Realm Act 1803, was introduced by the Government on 18 July 1803 and was passed on the 27 July.^[1]

The Act stated that Lords Lieutenant and their deputies should list all men between seventeen and fifty-five except clergymen, Quakers, school masters, and the infirm. The list would be classified into four classes: unmarried men under thirty with no living children under ten years of age; unmarried men aged between thirty and fifty, with no living children under ten; married men between seventeen and thirty with no more than two living children under ten; and those not included in the previous classifications. They would then be trained, armed and eligible in case of invasion to be called out anywhere in the British Isles. The Act was never raised for training due to the massive number of volunteers.^[2]

The Act was amended by the Levy en Masse Amendment Act 1803 (43 Geo. III, c. 120), which stated, among other things, that if the number of volunteers in any county was satisfactory to the King he could suspend the operation of the Levy en Masse Act even if they did not amount to the three-fourths of the first classification. This was passed on 11 August.^[3]

Notes

1. ^ J. W. Fortescue, The County Lieutenancies and the Army, 1803-1814 (Macmillan, 1909), p. 30.
2. ^ Clive Emsley, British Society and the French Wars, 1793-1815 (Macmillan, 1979), p. 101.
3. ^ Fortescue, p. 34.