Quartering Act requires colonists to house British troops

In 1765, Parliament enacted the Quartering Act as part of the postwar program designed by George Grenville after the Seven Years' War. The law required colonial assemblies to provide British troops with barracks and supplies such as candles, bedding, salt, vinegar, and beer or cider when regular barracks were unavailable. New York became the center of the dispute when its assembly resisted funding the troops stationed there to enforce imperial policy.

The Quartering Act sharpened fears that Britain intended to support civil rule in America with a standing army maintained at colonial expense. Legislators in New York and other colonies argued that Parliament could not compel local assemblies to appropriate money without violating the principle that taxation and supply belonged to representatives chosen by the people. The controversy therefore blended financial pressure with constitutional principle, because the same empire that demanded obedience under the Stamp Act now demanded support for soldiers sent to secure that obedience.

The dispute over quartering fed directly into the New York Restraining Act of 1767 and later grievances against the stationing of troops in Boston before the Boston Massacre. It also reappeared in the Declaration of Independence and in the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution, both of which reflected deep colonial suspicion of compulsory billeting.