More nostalgia and trivia…

[image error]         Do you love meaningful trivia as much as I do? We grew up hearing this expression: “He read me the riot act.” “I really got the riot act read to me when I got home late.” “She read me the riot act when I bought the new car.” It means to get scolded, bawled out, or yelled at……. or does it?

No, not exactly. It comes from 17th century England and it was actually a Parliamentary ‘riot act’ that was read aloud at any unruly public gathering when things looked like they were getting out of hand.

The Riot Act (1714) was an Act of the Great Britain’s Parliament authorized local authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled, and thus have to disperse or face punitive action. The Act, came into force on 1 August 1715. It was repealed and replaced by the Criminal Law Act in 1967..

The Act created a mechanism for certain local officials to make a proclamation ordering the dispersal of any group of more than twelve people who were “unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together”. If the group failed to disperse within one hour, then anyone remaining gathered was guilty of a felony, without benefit of clergy and punishable by death.

The wording that had to be read out to the assembled gathering was as follows:

“Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King!’

……I love this!