The Quartering Act

On May 15, 1765, Parliament passed the Quartering Act, setting out where and how British soldiers would be housed in the American colonies. The Quartering Act of 1765 required the colonies to provide housing for British soldiers in barracks supplied by the colonies. If the barracks were too small, local communities had to lodge soldiers in inns, stables, alehouses, food establishments, and wine sellers’ homes. If there were still soldiers without a place to stay after all these public houses were full, the act stated that the colonies must take or rent vacant houses, outbuildings, barns, or other suitable structures to accommodate His Majesty’s forces. All of this was to be free of charge to the British troops and funded by the colonies alone.

The wording of the act makes it clear that the idea of Redcoats kicking colonists out of their bedrooms to move in themselves was neither the law’s intent nor its actual practice. Still, the New York colonial assembly didn’t appreciate being ordered to house British troops. They wanted to be asked and give their consent before having soldiers among them. So, they refused to comply, leading Parliament in 1767 to pass the New York Restraining Act, which barred the royal governor from approving any new legislation until the assembly followed the Quartering Act. This was exactly the kind of totalitarianism that caused the colonies to declare their independence, and it was never going to be tolerated…at least not for long.

In New York, the governor convinced Parliament that the assembly had met its obligations. In Massachusetts, where barracks already stood on an island far from the unrest stirred by the Townshend Revenue Acts, British officers followed the Quartering Act’s rule to house soldiers in public spaces, not private homes. With few options, they set up tents on Boston Common. Living side by side with angry Patriots, the soldiers soon clashed in street fights, leading to the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which five stone-throwing colonists were killed and any remaining trust between Bostonians and Redcoats was shattered. That divide never healed, and the British troops remained in Boston until George Washington and the Continental Army forced them out in 1776.