Browns case
2 Ro: Abr:
139 p3.

of ten Shillings a month to be forfeited by the Owner of
the cottage to the Lord of the Leet where Such cottage is, And
tho' it be true that Justices of the peace in their Sessions have
power by that Statute to inquire of all Offences against the
same, and to a ward execucon for levying the forfeitures
by Fieri facias, capias, or otherwise as the cause shall
require, yet the offenders not being properly Cottagers or
keeping cottages or Such like houses for habitacon only
erected upon the wasts of Mannors but mostly Keepers
of publick houses or proprietors of other dwelling houses
harbouring Single persons under pretence of letting
lodgeing for hire and not different poor Familys in the
manner intended by the Said Act of Parliament altho'
rather with greater inconvenience to the publick than
the persons there described Seem not to be punishable
by that Statute Noe more than they Seem to be within
the Rule or reason of the precedents where persons have
been Judicted for dividing messuages in Towns for
the habitacon of poor people or Familys which
might be dangerous in the time of the Plague, And
that Precedents of the like kind Said in Browns case
menconed in the Margent to be frequent in London,
There being not usually in cases under the consideracon
of the Committee any dividing of Messuages for Such
purpose into distinct tenements Tho' perhaps for
that reason the more danger of infection, Therefore
upon the whole of this point The Committee
unanimously came to this Resolucon.

"That it appeared to the Committee that the great
"Multitude of Inmates harboured within the Bills
"of Mortality and the parts adjacent is very
"dangerous and may be prejudicial to the healths
"of his Maties. Subjects as well as to the publick peace,