The Five-mile Act
Preserved but no longer current.
An Act passed in 1665 (repealed in 1689) prohibiting ministers who had refused to subscribe to the Act of Uni- formity from coming within five miles of any corporate town or within that distance of the scene of their old ministry.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “The Five-mile Act” mean?
An Act passed in 1665 (repealed in 1689) prohibiting ministers who had refused to subscribe to the Act of Uni- formity from coming within five miles of any corporate town or within that distance of the scene of their old ministry.
Is “The Five-mile Act” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.