Quartering Acts - Quartering Act of 1774

Quartering Act of 1774

An amendment to the original Quartering Act (citation 14 George. III c. 54) was passed on June 2, 1774. This act was passed and enforced, along with many others, known by the colonists as the 'Intolerable Acts'. They were a reaction to the Boston Tea Party and that were aimed at quelling the radicalism in Massachusetts;. In the previous Act, the colonies had been required to provide housing for soldiers, but colonial legislatures had been uncooperative in doing so. The new Quartering Act similarly allowed a governor to house soldiers in other buildings,such as: barns, inns, among other unoccupied structures, if suitable quarters were not provided. It did not have the provision in the previous Act that soldiers be provided with provisions. The amendments made also created the requirement for the housing of troops to be a mutual agreement between the parties involved. Also if a government had laws that provided troops with billets, that were approved by the crown, did not have the Act applied to their province. Along with that the act had similar protective guidelines to that of the Mutiny Act in Great Britain at the time. These guidelines were punishments for people who were quartered in private buildings. They were the same whether you lived in England itself or its colonies.

This Act expired on March 24, 1776.