1) Literally ‘the aforesaid’, the things mentioned previously. It is now usually understood to refer to a building or buildings, and this meaning came about via title deeds and other legal documents which referred in the first place to a piece of property and then to the aforesaid property.
Early usages include: 1564 Nicollas Tirner ... animated his fellowes, saying pull hym ... fourth of the quere And the premisses were don, Slaidburn. In 1754, it was argued at the Quarter Sessions that people in the Sheffield area were escaping prosecution simply because there was no place locally to hold prisoners. Their worships were asked to take the premises into consideration and to order a House of Correction to be built.