Obs. exc. Hist. Also 3 -setle, 5 Sc. undirsettill, -sedell, wndersedyll, 6 Sc. vndersittell. [f. UNDER-1 6 a + -settle, -setle, repr. OE. -setla (see COTSETLA), f. set-, root of SIT v.] One who occupies a house (or part of one) held by another; a subtenant.
1235–52. Rentalia Glaston. (Somerset Rec. Soc.), 108. Si famulus vel famula vel undersetles venerint, quisque dabit ob. per diem.
1326. in Court Baron (Selden Soc.), 146. [Strangers coming from without, who hire houses from divers persons and hold nothing of the lord,… called] Undersettles.
1476. Peebles Burgh Rec. (1872), 178. Grantand to … George Robyson fwll power to mak rasonabyll tenandis and wndersedyllis.
1480. Exchequer Rolls Scotl., IX. 30. De dicto loco de Farnele de anno elapso pro uno undirsettill,… xx s.
1510. in C. Rogers, Coldstream Chartul. (1879), 58. With power to mak subtenentis and vndersittellis.
1607. N. Riding Rec. (1884), I. 95. Leon. Marshall of Ravensworth [presented] for keeping an undersettle for the space of a moneth. Ibid. (1612), 266. John Herdman … for keeping an undersettle in the house wherein one Will. Dynnis now dwelleth.
1781–. Parish Terriers, Welton (Yks.). For every messuage or cottage … six pence and for every under-settle three pence.
So Undersettler; Undersettling vbl. sb., ppl. a.
1576. E. Worsely’s MS. Surv. Mannor of Felsted, Essex, 47. It was granted to one John Lord … by vertue of a coppy of underselling made thereof to the said John. Ibid., 147. Every tenant customary commonly called an Undersetling tenant.
1794. W. Hutchinson, Hist. Cumbld., I. 163, note. The tenants are subject to pains … for taking in inmates or undersettlers.
