free quarteringn.
/ˌfriː ˈkwɔːt(ə)rɪŋ/, U.S. /ˌfri ˈkwɔrd(ə)rɪŋ/ Now historical.
The action of free-quarter v.; the billeting of troops at the householder's expense.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military organization > logistics > quartering > [noun] > upon private persons
coynye1449
free quartering1644
free quarter1645
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1644 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1872) II. 21 The said Marques..hes enforced the free quartering of [300] sojors.
1689 Answer to Late King James's Declar. 18 If free quartering, plundering, robbing, disarming, seizing on Estates, imprisoning, murdering in cold Blood, and the like, be a securing these poor Protestants against their private Enemies, they have no reason to complain of King James his Conduct.
1745 Sinfulness Compliance with Rebels 54 The whole Western Shires of Scotland were wasted, and almost ruined by free quartering, Exactions, Robberies, Thefts, [etc.].
1881 Catholic World Sept. 740 Accounts of..the free quartering of riotous mobs, of their own motion, in the shops and houses of worthy citizens.
1994 Hist. Jrnl. 37 798 Parish accounts could not take notice of the increase in free quartering that followed the army's march on London in 1647.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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