inmate

1) A sub-tenant or lodger.

From the sixteenth century there were statutes and by-laws against allowing poor persons to be taken in as lodgers, principally because they were seen as a potential charge on the parish: 1598 whosoeuer ... doth take any Inmate or place any Cottinger vpon his owne possessions shall either releefe and keepe them from beggyng & gleanynge of Corne ... Or else shall incurr a fyne of five Markes, West Riding

1657 Richard Cusworth of Royston, husbandman, by the space of one whole month ... in his mancion house there hath kept and lodged diverse Inmates ... By reason where of divers strifes Brawlings and discords ... hath arisen amongst the neighbours, charging the parish ... with a multitude of poore

1693 Wee ... do allowe John Midgley ... to bulde himselfe an house... provided that hee there by disturbe no Highway... nor make any more inmates but one, Austonley.

dates 1598 1657

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