File 29. - Act Of Parliament (4 Henry VIII, c. 8) declaring that all suits brought against MPs for their speeches or actions ...,

Act Of Parliament (4 Henry VIII, c. 8) declaring that all suits brought against MPs for their speeches or actions in Parliament should be void. The act was passed following the imprisonment of Richard Stroud, a burgess for Plumpton, Devon, by the Stannary courts who disliked a bill he introduced about tin works. Copy (which Williams had made so as to prepare his defence against an information filed against him for licensing, as Speaker in 1680, the publication of Thomas Dangerfield's libellous Narrative. His main defence was that of parliamentary privilege. In the event Williams allowed judgement to go against him by default. For the Narrative see no. 58 and cf. no. 56, ff. 253-75].