Those convicted of high treason would have their estates confiscated by the King and then be hanged, drawn and quartered.

After determining that the 1543 Treason Act was still in effect, Parliament instructed Governor Francis Bernard of Massachusetts to gather evidence against Bostonians who might have committed acts of treason, so that they could be transported to England for trial.

Colonial assemblies in British America passed resolutions against such an action, arguing that it would violate their constitutional right to a trial by jury of their peers.

No one in Massachusetts was arrested under the terms of the Treason Act, but the matter came up again in Rhode Island after the Gaspée Affair in 1772.

Both forms of treason were abolished in 1547,[4] but the latter was revived in the first year of the reign of Elizabeth I.