Places of Worship Registration Act 1855

1855 CHAPTER 81

An Act to amend the Law concerning the certifying and registering of Places of Religious Worship in England.

[30th July 1855]

WHEREAS by an [1 W. & M. Sess. 1. c. 18.] Act of the First Session of the First Year of King William and Queen Mary, Chapter Eighteen, and an [52 G. 3. c. 155.] Act of the Fifty-second Year of King George the Third, Chapter One hundred and fifty-five, Places of Meeting of Congregations or Assemblies for Religious Worship of Protestants (save as therein excepted with respect to Places of Worship of the Established Church and otherwise) were required to be certified to the Bishop's or Archdeacon's Court, or to the General or Quarter Sessions of the Peace, and to be registered, in such Court, and recorded at such Sessions: And whereas by an [31 G. 3. c. 32.] Act of the Thirty-first Year of King George the Third, Chapter Thirty-two, every Place of Congregation or Assembly for Religious Worship of Persons professing the Roman Catholic Religion is required to be certified to and recorded at the General or Quarter Sessions of the Peace: And whereas by the Two following Acts respectively, that is to say, an [2 & 3 W. 4. c. 115.] Act of the Session holden in the Second and Third Years of King William the Fourth, Chapter One hundred and fifteen, and an [9 & 10 Vict. c. 59.] Act of the Session holden in the Ninth and Tenth Years of Her Majesty, Chapter Fifty-nine, Her Majesty's Subjects professing the Roman Catholic Religion, and Her Majesty's Subjects professing the Jewish Religion, in respect of their Places for Religious Worship, are made subject to the same Laws as Protestant Dissenters : And whereas by an [15 & 16 Vict. c. 36.] Act passed in the Session holden in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Years of Her Majesty, Chapter Thirty-six, Places of Meeting of Congregations or Assemblies for Religious Worship of Protestant Dissenters are required to be certified to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England, and to be recorded in the General Register Office, in lieu of being certified to and registered and recorded in the Bishop's or Archdeacon's Court, and at the General or Quarter Sessions, as herein-before mentioned : And whereas it is expedient that all Places of Religious Worship, not being Churches or Chapels of the Established Church, should, if the Congregation should desire, but not otherwise, be certified to the said Registrar General:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows: