Mutiny Act 1701

XVII. Recital of Petition of Right and of Stat. 31 Car. II. c.1.§ 32.

Constables, &c., may billet Officers and Soldiers in Inns, &c; Billetting in Private Houses without Consent of Owner,; Remedy; Officers quartering Soldiers contrary to Act, or menacing, &c. Civil Officers performing their Duty,; cashiered and disabled.

And whereas by the Petition of Right in the Third Year of King Charles the First itt is enacted and declared That the People of this Land are not by the Laws to be burthened with the sojourning of Soldiers against their Wills And by a Clause in one Act of Parliament made in the One and thirtieth Year of the Reign of King Charles the Second for granting a Supply to His Majesty of Two hundred and six thousand four hundred and sixty two Pounds Seventeen Shillings and Three Pence for paying and disbanding the Forces it is declared and enacted That no Officer Military or Civil nor any other Person whatsoever shall from thenceforth presume to place quarter or billett any Soldier or Soldiers upon any Subject or Inhabitant of this Realm of any Degree Quality or Profession whatsoever without his Consent And that it shall and may be lawfull for any such Subject Sojourner and Inhabitant to refuse to quarter any Soldier or [X1 Soldiers] notwithstanding any Command or Warrant or billetting whatsoever But forasmuch as at this present Time there is occasion for the marching of many Regiments Troops and Companies in several Parts of this Kingdom towards the Sea Coast and otherwise Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That for and during the Continuance of this Act and no longer it shall and may be lawfull for the Constables Tything men Headboroughs and other Chief Officers and Magistrates of Cities Townes and Villages and other Places in the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed and for no others to quarter and billett the Officers and Soldiers in His Majesties Service in Inns Livery Stables Alehouses Victualling Houses and all Houses selling Brandy Strong Waters Cyder or Metheglin by Retail to be drank in their Houses and no other and in no private Houses whatsoever nor shall any more Billetts at any Time be ordered than there are effective Soldiers present to be quartered And if any Constable Tything Man or such like Officer or Magistrate as aforesaid shall presume to quarter or billett any such Officer or Soldier in any private House without the Consent of the Owner or Occupyer in such Case such Owner or Occupier shall have his or their Remedy at Law against such Magistrate or Officer for the Damage that such Owner or Occupier shall sustain thereby And if any Military Officer shall take upon him to quarter Soldiers otherwise than is limitted and allowed by this Act or shall use or offer any Menace or Compulsion to or upon any Mayors Constables or other Civil Officers before mentioned tending to deter or discourage any of them from performing any part of their Duty hereby required or appointed such Military Officer shall for every such Offence being thereof convicted before any Two or more Justices of the Peace next adjoining by the Oath of Two credible Witnesses and the said Justices Certificate thereof to the Judge Advocate who is hereby obliged to certifie the same to the next Court Martial upon such Certificate to be deemed and taken to be ipso facto cashiered and shall be utterly disabled to have or hold any Military Imployment within this Kingdom or in His Majesties Service.

Editorial Information

X1 interlined on the Roll.