Inmate with mother

[Meggiejayne]

On my 3x great grandmother's marriage certificate her occupation is recorded as "inmate with her mother".

I'm just trying to figure out what this might mean? Does it mean prison or workshouse?

My initial thinking was prison but then I noticed on the certificate her father is deceased so wondering if they ended up in the workhouse following his death?

They married in May 1841 so I tried to do a 1841 Census search for her but on the 1841 Census I find her living with her husband.

[ShaunJ]

I think that would just mean that she was living with her mother.

The original meaning of inmate was "one allowed to live in a house rented by another".  By the mid  19th century there were two meanings of the word: a person who is confined in a prison, hospital, etc. or the original meaning, a person who dwells with others in the same house.

[Meggiejayne]

Thank you - that would make more sense I suppose. I'll see if I can find her mother in the 1851 Census and her younger siblings to confirm this. Its not something that I've come across before.

[ShaunJ]

They married in May 1841 so I tried to do a 1841 Census search for her but on the 1841 Census I find her living with her husband.

The 1841 census was taken in June.

[Meggiejayne]

Thank you. I think your explanation is correct because I would have expected her to take her mother in after her marriage if they were in the workhouse.

[phil57]

I have found the term in a number of census records, in which it indicates people who were living together in the same building.

It was used a lot in the 1861 census in Lincolnshire to denote workers involved in the construction of the Great Northern Railway, who were billeted in the homes of local residents or in temporary huts and buildings specially constructed to accommodate them.