Foreign and Protestants Naturalization Act 1708

The Foreign and Protestants Naturalization Act 1708 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (statute chapter book number "7 Ann. c. 5") which was passed to allow the naturalisation of French Protestants (Huguenots) who had fled to Britain after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

The Whig majority in Parliament passed the Act with the support of both Houses of Parliament despite some opposition that a "conflux of aliens that would be invited over". The counter-argument is presented in the preamble of the bill "that the increase of people is a means of advancing the wealth and strength of a nation."

The effect of the Act was that all foreign Protestants could be naturalised provided they swore allegiance to the government and received sacrament in any Protestant church. Between May and June 1709, up to 12,000 Palatines, Suabians, and other German Lutherans had arrived in Britain due to war in those places. Some German Catholics who arrived were sent back, and some immigrants were sent on to Ireland, New York and Carolina.

References

* 'Book 1, Ch. 18: Queen Anne', A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark (1773), pp. 288-306. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=46735. Date accessed: 16 November 2006.