Bondager

Bondager, the term applied in the south of Scotland and in Northumberland to a female labourer whom a 'hind' or married farm-worker undertakes to supply for the regular field-work on a farm as a condition of his tenancy of his cottage. She is frequently a member of his own family, or she may be merely engaged and boarded by him. The origin of the bondager system is the want of a sufficient rural population for the field-work of the neighbourhood.