The Erection of Cottages Act 1588 was an Act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised ...

that prohibited the construction—in most parts of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

—of any dwelling that did not have at least assigned to it out of the freehold or other heritable land belonging to the person responsible for its construction.

Background

17th Century Squatters' House, Airton - geograph

In the reign of

Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...

there arose a common belief, that if a house was erected by a squatter and his friends on waste ground overnight, then they had the right of undisturbed possession. The problems caused by the large number of illegally erected cottages, on common land, was explicitly recognised by an act known as Erection of Cottages Act 1588 (31 Eliz c. 7, long title "An Act against the erecting and maintaining of Cottages").

The act

To make it difficult for squatters to build, the act laid down, that a cottage should have minimum of of land associated with it: The act passed into law on 8 March 1589. Exemption from the Act could be obtained by petition to the

Quarter Sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

on grounds of poverty, provided the permission of the manorial lord was given. Lodgers and the subdivision of houses were not allowed. This was qualified by an act passed in 1601 entitled Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601 which gave churchwardens and overseers authority to build cottages on ‘waste and common’ for the use of the poor, with permission of the manorial lord:

The Erection of Cottages Act 1775

The act was repealed by the Erection of Cottages Act 1775 (15 Geo. III c. 32) The principal reasons for the repeal were in the preamble, which stated that the 1588 act had made it difficult for poor people to find 'habitation' and also that it may have caused a reduction in the population.

Notes

References

* * * * * {{Cite book, last=Townsend, first=George H., title=The Manual of Dates: A Dictionary of Reference etc, url=https://archive.org/details/manualofdatesdic00town, publisher=Routledge, Warne and Routledge, location=London, year=1862 1588 in England Acts of the Parliament of England (1485–1603) 1588 in law Housing legislation in the United Kingdom