a1450 Chron. Repton in Jrnl. Derbyshire Archaeol. & Nat. Hist. Soc. (1902) 24 77 (MED) Lorde Henry Hastinges third part of the iiijt part in the first subdivision, as by quartering of his cote sholde seme, came to the lorde Graye.

1592 W. Wyrley True Vse Armorie 4 An other thing that is amisse..is the quartering of many marks in one shield, coate, or banner.

1595 Blanchardine & Eglantine ii. 15 Then questioned he with his Master, of the blazonry of armes, and y^e quartering of these coates.

1614 W. Camden Remaines (rev. ed.) 191 Quartering of Coates, beganne, first..in Spaine, in the Armes of Castile and Leon.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Quartering, in Heraldry, the dividing a Coat into four or more Quarters..by parting and couping.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) Colombiere reckons twelve sorts of Quarterings.

1768 W. Guthrie Gen. Hist. Scotl. X. 375 The twenty-fourth regulates the quartering of the arms of the two kingdoms upon the great seal.

1853 Times 20 Dec. 8/5 I beg leave to inform him, through the medium of your valuable paper, that he is perfectly correct as to the quartering of the arms.

1869 J. E. Cussans Handbk. Heraldry (rev. ed.) xii. 152 Quartering..was not generally adopted until the end of the Fourteenth Century. The manner in which various coats are brought in, and marshalled by Quartering [etc.].

1930 Burlington Mag. Apr. 212/1 The alteration of the shield from a single coat to a quartering of three coats.

1970 Armorial 6 29 Berry's armorial heightens the possibility that at some stage the Homes may have formed a combined single coat (for quartering was still rare at the time of their marriage to the Pepolie heiress in the second half of the fourteenth century).

2000 Renaissance Q. 53 487 It addressed questions of correctness in heraldic technicalities (differences in degrees of bastardy, the quartering of daughters' arms, distinctions to be worn in the arms of younger brothers when they marry and establish new houses).

1610 E. Bolton Elements of Armories xxix. 164 An whole Coate hath been giuen to a Name as an augmentation beside the originall Coat, as that which in the quarterings of the Cliffords..is borne second.

1656 W. Dugdale Antiq. Warwickshire 58 That these matches with Napton and Prudhome before specified, were heirs, the quarterings on those their Monuments at Monkskirby are satisfaction enough.

1719 E. Ashmole Hist. & Antiq. Berks. II. 214 A Surcoat..of the Quarterings impaled with Fetiplace.

1763 C. Johnstone Reverie (new ed.) II. 55 I have nine quarterings more than he.

1827 B. Disraeli Vivian Grey IV. vi. iv. 132 He did nothing but..think of the ten thousand quarterings of his immaculate shield.

1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple II. xii. 196 The pride of colour is very great in the West Indies, and they have as many quarterings as a German prince in his coat of arms.

1879 ‘G. Eliot’ Theophrastus Such ii. 42 Some of them..belong to families with many quarterings.

1926 Amer. Mercury Mar. 280/1 Its brilliant quarterings speak of medieval fortresses and barons at wassail.

1970 Armorial 6 24 The similar coat of gold three lion's heads gules borne by Gordon,..ostensibly as a quartering for the Lordship of Badenoch.

1996 Daily Tel. 31 Dec. 19/6 An expert on heraldry, Cornwall-Legh researched his own coat of arms, which had 80 quarterings.

1608 E. Grimeston tr. J. F. Le Petit Gen. Hist. Netherlands xiii. 1008 The Duke of Parma..sent certaine officers before to view the commodiousnesse of the ground..as well for the planting of his ordinance, as for the quartering of his men.

1644 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1872) II. 21 The said Marques..hes enforced the free quartering of [300] sojors.

1646 E. Nicholas Papers (1886) I. 68 Your Honours frends at Winterborne are well, but much oppressed with quarteringe.

1705 London Gaz. No. 4098/2 The Inhabitants..much impoverished by the Quartering of Soldiers.

1769 B. Franklin London 853 The people of Boston are grievously offended by the Quartering of Troops among them, as they think, contrary to Law.

1816 W. Scott Antiquary III. xvi. 335 You, sir, must get to Fairport, to give directions for the quartering and maintaining the men and horses, and preventing confusion.

1867 S. Smiles Huguenots Eng. & Ireland x. 240 In anticipation of the quartering of the dragoons on the family, his wife had gone into concealment.

1952 E. F. Davies Illyrian Venture ii. 43 He was taking over the appointment of Administration and Quartering.

2001 Ethics 111 824 The threat posed by an executive branch of government having the sole authority to authorize quartering.

1625 R. Montagu Appello Cæsarem 236 Heaven..is not..so narrowed..that there cannot bee divers Designations, Regions, Habitations, Mansions, or Quarterings there.

1747 H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 177 A motion for inquiring into useless places and quarterings.

1844 Rep. Comm. Poor Law Scotl. Index 578 In several of the parishes of Shetland, more particularly throughout the presbytery of Burravoe, the poor are relieved by what is called ‘Quartering’.

1917 E. R. Burroughs Princess of Mars xii. 123 An enormous court,..given over to the quartering of the various animals belonging to the warriors occupying the adjoining buildings.

1970 Ethnomusicol. 14 456 The quartering of a considerable body of Russian technicians in the town to work on the recently opened natural gas pipeline.

2001 Macon (Georgia) Tel. (Nexis) 29 Nov. b7 The four-month winter quartering of the circus.