Thankyou Peter for your reply, then I thought that in the past and even today MP`s, JP`s, Judges, Lords, etc take an Oath to the Crown. the 1723 Oath was to George 1st to stop the Stuarts, every one over 18 had to register their land/property by December 25th or it could be confiscated in particular Catholic lands. Next sorry to mislead you, my ancester who took an Oath was an "Oath of Association" to the Merchants Company of Alnwick 1695/6 just after his finniched his apprenticeship to a Merchant. Info from the NDFHS Journal of Spring 1993 and other sources. The same year he was said at a baptism to be Mr. Mark Grumble Have not had a reply yet from Northumbria but then I waited over 18 hours for my mail to be published. Cheers Jack