Exploros_logo


Excerpt from The Stamp Act, 1765

King George III, An Act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, 1765

An act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, towards further defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same; and for amending such parts of the several acts of parliament relating to the trade and revenues of the said colonies and plantations, as direct the manner of determining and recovering the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned.

WHEREAS by an act made in the last session of parliament, several duties were granted, continued, and appropriated, towards defraying the expences of defending, protecting, and securing, the British colonies and plantations in America: and whereas it is just and necessary, that provision be made for raising a further revenue within your Majesty’s dominions in America, towards defraying the said expences: we, your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the commons of Great Britain in parliament assembled, have therefore resolved to give and grant unto your Majesty the several rates and duties herein after mentioned; and do most humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King’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, That from and after the first day of November, one thousand seven hundred and sixty five, there shall be raised, levied, collected, and paid unto his Majesty, his heirs, and successors, throughout the colonies and plantations in America which now are, or hereafter may be, under the dominion of his Majesty, his heirs and successors…

A formal full-length portrait of a European monarch, likely King George III, standing in an opulent room with a fluted column and luxurious drapes. The subject is dressed in magnificent coronation regalia, including a gold brocade suit, a white ermine-trimmed robe, and a heavy jeweled collar, while he rests one hand on a table and looks confidently to the side.
King George II approved the Stamp Act passed by Parliament in 1765

Glossary

defraying: paying for the cost of something

expenses: the cost needed to pay for something; the amount of money spent on something

forfeiture: something (like money or property) that is taken away as a penalty for breaking a law or a rule

levied: collected or charged by a government, usually as a tax


Source: Excerpt from The Stamp Act, 1765

SOURCES CITED:

Ramsay, A. (1764). King George III in Coronation Robes. Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allan_Ramsay_-_King_George_III_in_coronation_robes_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

The British Parliament. (1765). The Stamp Act, 1765. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/stamp-act-1765



Back to top