1715 Riot Act
Stated it was a serious crime for members of a crowd of twelve or more people to refuse to disperse within an hour of being ordered to do so by a magistrate. Includes brief details.
1751 Gin Act
Increased duties on gin. The sale by distillers and shopkeepers was now strictly controlled. Includes brief summary.
1774 Gaol Act
Abolished gaolers' fees and suggested ways for improving the sanitary state of prisons and the better preservation of the health of prisoners. Includes brief summary.
1801 Act of Union
Policy to deal with religious conflicts in Ireland by uniting the country with the rest of Britain under a single Parliament. Includes brief details.
1802 Factory Act
Applied principally, though not exclusively, to protect the health and morals of apprentices in cotton and woolen mills. Includes brief details of regulations.
1804 Corn Laws
Imposed a duty on imported corn. Includes excerpts from the writings of several authors.
1807 Abolition of Slavery Act
Law that forced British captains to pay a £100 for every slave found on board. Includes brief details.
1815 Stamp Act
Increased tax on British newspapers to 4d. a copy. Includes brief details.
1817 Gagging Acts
Banned meetings of over fifty people and instructed magistrates to arrest everyone suspected of spreading libel. Includes cartoon and brief details.
1819 Six Acts
Six measures enacted by Parliament to suppress radical newspapers and meetings, as well as reduce the possibility of an armed uprising. Includes details.
1823 Gaol Act
Introduced regular visits by prison chaplains, the payment of gaolers, prohibition of irons, and assignment of women warders to women prisoners. Includes brief background text.
1825 Combination Act
Defined the rights of trade unions as meeting to bargain over wages and conditions. Includes brief details.
1825 Combination Acts
Imposed limitations on the right to strike. Includes drawing by Thomas Rowlandson.
1833 Abolition of Slavery Act
Passed by Parliament and granted freedom to all slaves in the British Empire. Includes brief summary.
1833 Factory Act
Attempted to establish a normal working day in a single department of industry or textile manufacture. Includes brief details.
1834 Poor Law Act
Established provision for building of work houses, their supervision and conditions. Includes details.
1839 Infant Custody Act
Gave mothers the right of custody of their children under seven for the first time, but only if the Lord Chancellor agreed to it, and only if the mother was of good character. Includes brief summary.
1844 Factory Act
Reduced the hours of work for children between eight and thirteen to six and a half a day. Includes brief details.
1844 Railway Act
Required each company to run one passenger train daily at the cheap rate of one penny a mile (1.6 km), provide carriage seats that offered protection from bad weather. Includes details.
1846 Corn Law Act
Reduced the duty on oats, barley and wheat to the insignificant sum of one shilling per quarter. Includes brief details.
1847 Factory Act
Limited the hours of work to sixty-three per week from the 1st of July 1847, and to fifty-eight per week, from the 1st of May 1848. Includes brief details.
1850 Factory Act
Slightly increased the weekly working hours from fifty-eight to sixty, while rendering the enforcement of the definite working day practically secure. Includes brief details.
1857 Matrimonial Causes Act
Allowed divorce through the law courts, instead of the slow and expensive business of a private act of Parliament. Includes brief details.
1864 Contagious Diseases Act
Allowed policeman to arrest prostitutes in ports and army towns and bring them in to have compulsory checks for venereal disease. Includes brief details.
1867 Factory Act
Restricted the hours during which children, young persons and women could work in any manufacturing process in an establishment which employed fifty or more persons. Includes brief summary.
1867 Masters and Servants Act
Narrowly defined the rights of trade unions as meeting to bargain over wages and conditions. Includes brief text.
1869 Municipal Franchise Act
Extended the vote to women ratepayers in local elections and also enabled women to serve as Poor Law Guardians. Includes brief details.
1870 Education Act
Divided the country into about 2500 school districts, gave ratepayers authority to elect school boards, allowed school boards the right to make their own by-laws and granted women the right to vote for board candidates. Includes details.
1871 Trade Union Act
Secured the legal status of trade unions. Includes brief summary.
1871 Universities Tests Act
Opened both Oxford and Cambridge to members of all religions.
1874 Factory Act
Reduced the working schedule a half-an-hour daily in textile factories. Includes brief details.
1882 Married Women's Property Act
Under its terms married women had the same rights over their property as unmarried women. Includes brief summary.
1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act
Raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen, strengthened existing legislation against prostitution and proscribed all homosexual relations. Includes brief summary.
1886 Guardianship of Infants Act
Gave women more chance of achieving custody of her children after being divorced. Includes brief text.
1891 Factory Act
Prohibited employment of women within four weeks after confinement and raised the minimum age at which a child could work from ten to eleven. Includes brief details.
1902 Education Act
Abolished all 2568 school boards and handed over their duties to local boroughs or county councils. Became major political issue. Includes background information.
1906 Provision of School Meals Act
Permitted local authorities to provide school meals. Includes brief details.
1906 Trades Disputes Act
Removed trade union liability for damage by strike action.
1908 Old Age Pensions Act
Provided between 1s. and 5s. a week to people over seventy. These pensions were only paid to citizens on incomes that were not over 12s. Includes brief details.
1911 National Insurance Act
Gave the British working classes the first contributory system of insurance against illness and unemployment. Includes brief details.
1911 Parliament Act
Prevented the House of Lords right to pass "money bills" and restricted their ability to delay other legislation to three sessions of parliament. Also reduced the maximum length of time between general elections from seven years to five and provided payment for members of Parliament.
1913 Cat & Mouse Act
Refers to a means of dealing with women prisoners' hunger strikes. Includes postcard and brief summary.
1913 Trade Union Act
Gave unions the right to divide subscriptions into political and social funds. Includes brief details.
1914 Defence of the Realm Act
Gave the government emergency powers to requisition property, apply censorship, control labour and removed traditional civil liberties. Includes brief text.
1916 Military Service Act
Mandated conscription (compulsory enrollment) in the army. Includes brief details.
1924 Housing Act
Developed a partnership between political parties, local authorities and specially appointed committees of building employees and employers. Planned for building of 190,000 new council houses at modest rents in 1925.
1927 Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act
Outlawed general strikes and sympathetic strikes, and banned civil servants from joining unions.
1936 Public Order Act
Gave the Home Secretary the power to ban marches in the London area and also made it an offense to wear political uniforms and use threatening and abusive words.
Catholic Emancipation
Presents details of attempts made to obtain full political and civil liberties to British and Irish Roman Catholics. Includes drawing by J. Doyle.
Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act
Allowed peaceful picketing to take place during industrial disputes. Includes brief details.