The previous limit of three years had been set by the Triennial Act 1694, enacted by the Parliament of England.

However, it may have had the effect of keeping the Whig party, which had won the 1715 general election, in power for a longer time.

[citation needed] James Madison used the Septennial Act 1715 as an illustrative example of the difference between the traditional British system and the revolutionary new American constitution.

The Act was also criticized by Thomas Paine and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke.

In Dissertation upon Parties, Bolingbroke wrote that the "constitution is the rule by which our princes ought to govern at all times".