The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired an unsigned folio broadside for an Oath of Allegiance to King George II dated 1747. The Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue lists six printings of the oath, only two dated (1700 and 1702).

George II, King of Great Britain (1683-1760) was the only son of George I. His reign as King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire lasted from 1727 to his death in 1760.
“I A.B. do sincerely promise and swear, that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to His Majesty King George. So help me God.

I A.B. do swear, that I do from my Heart abhor, destest, and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable Doctrine and Posit ion, that Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any Authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects, or any other whatsoever.

And I do declare, that no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath, or ought to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Preeminence, or Authority, ecclesiastical or spritiual, within this Realm.

So help me God. London: Printed by Thomas Baskett, Printer to the King’s most excellent Majesty; and by the Assigns of Robert Baskett. 1747.”

Watermark

James Granger (1723-1776), A Biographical History of England (London: Printed by the illustrator, [1856]). Rare Books (Ex) Oversize 1497.4055.12q v.23