Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a sum of money paid by a rich prisoner to a poorer one, for which payment the latter forfeits his part of a shared cell, leaving it all to the rich prisoner and taking up a position in some communal area of the prison [this rich-to-poor bribe has also been recorded as taking place at mid-19C universities].

1777		Scots Mag. :
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Chummage, money paid by the richer sort of prisoners in the Fleet and King’s Bench, to the poorer for their share of a room; when prisons are very full, which is too often the case [...] two or three persons are obliged to sleep in a room. A prisoner who can pay for being alone, chuses two poor chums, who for a stipulated price, called chummage, give up their share of the room, and sleep on the stairs, or as the term is, ruff it.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1815		Morn. Post 21 Oct. 3/3: The prison contains within its walls 109 rooms, 89 of which at present receive chums [...] 8 have no fire-places and are exempt from chummage.
1825		Examiner 18 Dec. 4/2: The rule of chummage is, [...] those who have been confined the shortest are to be chummed first.
1828		Western Times 24 May 3/1: The reason of their [i.e. the condemned cells] being so much covetted [sic] is, that, in consequence of their proscription, they are exempt from chummage.
1838		Kentish Gaz. 9 Oct. 2/3: Persons who [...] have made a comfortable living under the chummage system, would be in danger of starving if turned loose in the streets.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 101: The time-honoured system of ‘chummage,’ or quartering two or more collegians in one room, and allowing the richest to pay his companions a stipulated sum to go out and find quarters elsewhere.
1865		London Standard 22 June 5/2: Money in the Fleet enabled a prisoner to get rid of ‘chummage’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 559: Accomodation, eh? [...] Plenty of that Mr. Pickvick. Your chummage ticket will be on twenty-seven, in the third.
1838		Kentish Gaz. 9 Oct. 2/3: A chummage landlord has often received a guinea and a half a week.

3. a monetary forfeit, usu. 2s 6d (12.5p), paid by a new prisoner to those who have already established themselves in the prison.

1777		Howard State of Prisons in England and Wales 25: A cruel custom obtains in most of our Gaols, which is that of prisoners demanding of a new comer Garnish, Footing, or (as it is called in some London Gaols) Chummage. ‘Pay or strip are the fatal words’ .
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 562: The regular chummage is two-and-sixpence.
1884		A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 5: Unwritten but accepted customs suffered the general body to exact ‘garnish’ or ‘chummage’ from newcomers.
1886		M.E. Braddon Mohawks III 155: He claps all his prisoners into that hell, and makes them pay heavily before he allows them to be removed to the purgatory of another house, or the paradise of prison and chummage.

4. in a non-custodial sense, a payment from any newcomer.

1890

Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Aug. 24/1: You must know, Mrs. Browning, there is what is called ‘chummage.’ Everyone who comes, bond or free, has to pay his or her ‘footing.’ He or she must do something for his or her circle.