"Inmates" in Burton Coggles in 1851 census

[phil57]

Whilst searching for a relative living in the Spalding area who was not shown with his wife on the night of the 1851 census, I believe I have found him in Burton Coggles, employed as a rail labourer. But he is one of several such men all residing in a local family home, all described as inmates. Further examination of the census pages shows numerous groups of such men either living in local family homes or in a group of railway huts situated within the district.

So they must have been workers on construction of the GNW railway, and the description of the enumeration district states that it includes "all the temporary buildings of the Great Northern Railway running through the said parish".

But does their description as inmates simply mean that they were each one of a group of several GNR employees living together within each house or hut, or does it infer something more about their status - e.g. that they were co-opted through poor relief legislation or similar?

[ShaunJ]

There is an archaic meaning of inmate as "one of several occupants of a house".

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/inmate

[phil57]

There is an archaic meaning of inmate as "one of several occupants of a house".

Thank you. That makes sense. It was just that all the menfolk who were obviously employed by or for construction of the railway, and living away from home without other family members, are described as inmates, whilst the few who had taken their families with them followed the more usual descriptions of head, wife, son, daur, etc. even where they are inhabiting temporary rail huts shared with inmates. In one cottage inhabited by a local family, they have taken in seven inmates. The first, a 73 year old man, is described as a tailor (parish relief) whilst the remainder are rail lab[ourers]. That's what set me wondering whether they were co-opted labour of some form, rather than voluntarily employed.