I have been working on analysis of remains from an 18th-century house  
     in Dumfries, VA (a tobacco-trading port on Quantico Creek).  It turns  
     out that the owner (a single woman named Fanny Ballendine) received  
     credit (30£/yr/person) in the ledger books of a local merchant for  
     boarding people apparently sent to her by them during the 1770s.
      
     Does anyone have any good references for the practice of boarding  
     people in private homes during the 18th century?  Were her boarders  
     necessarily staying with her, or only taking meals there?  The credits  
     say simply for "board of" so and so, not room and board.  Her credits  
     also include lines such as "extra allowance for strangers who eat at  
     our desire..."  Her boarders appear to have been merchants and their  
     servants.  I have a few references from traveler's accounts for the  
     practice of boarding in private homes, but not much.
      
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     Thanks in advance!