On May 15, 1765, Parliament passes the Quartering Act, outlining the locations and conditions in which British soldiers are to find room and board in the American colonies.
The Quartering Act of 1765 required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. If the barracks were too small to house all the soldiers, then localities were to accommodate the soldiers in local inns, livery stables, ale houses, victualling houses and the houses of sellers of wine. “Should there still be soldiers without accommodation after all such publick houses were filled,” the act read, “the colonies were then required to take, hire and make fit for the reception of his Majesty’s forces, such and so many uninhabited houses,…