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The British-English slang phrase to live (on) tally means: to live in concubinage.
This phrase occurs, for example, in the following from the column Woman to Woman, by Diana Pulson, published in the Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, Merseyside, England) of Tuesday 12th September 1995 [page 22, column 4]:
It would be interesting to know what all those women who have been banging on about women’s rights in Beijing, would make of Sophie Rhys Jones.
Few of them will have heard of her, but WE are aware that for some time she has been the lady in Prince Edward’s life, living with him at Buckingham Palace—presumably the royal version of what we ordinary subjects of Her Majesty would call “living tally” or “over the brush.”
The phrase to live (on) tally seems to refer to the noun tally in the sense of one of two parts which fit and complete each other.—Cf. the note in quotation 1 below, where the phrase to be somebody’s tally means: to be somebody’s concubine.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase to live (on) tally that I have found—these occurrences are from the counties of Cheshire and Lancashire, in northwestern England:
1-: From Chester Summer Assizes, published in the Stockport Advertiser, and Cheshire, Lancashire, and Derbyshire, Weekly Journal (Stockport, Cheshire, England) of Friday 6th September 1822 [page 2, column 4]:
LEVI THORPE, alias Broadhent, was indicted for a Rape on the body of Keziah Nuttall, at Hyde, on the evening of Sunday the 11th of August.
[…]
Keziah Nuttall […] deposed that […] the prisoner […] asked me if I would make it up to be married to him at Hyde wakes. I said I would not. He then asked me, if I would live Tally with him; and I told him I would not. [In the subsequent part of witness’s examination by the Court, she explained the term Tally to mean, living with him as his mistress, without being married.]
—Note: The same account mentions that the person who cross-examined Keziah Nuttall used the noun tally as follows [page 2, column 5]:
You saw a man that passed you twice on the road after prisoner had been soliciting you and talking of marrying you, and of being his Tally, why did you not ask his assistance?
2-: From The Manchester Times. And Lancashire and Cheshire Examiner (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 25th January 1840 [page 3, column 6]:
Borough Court, Wednesday.—Before the Mayor and R. Greenhogh, Esq.—Cross Purposes.—Elizabeth Rudd charged Catharine Daly with committing an assault upon her person on last Saturday, by which she was knocked down and had her hair torn from her head. In this, as in many cases which are brought before the magistrates, the quarrel originated from a supposed immorality on the part of the defendant Daly. The complainant had taunted her with living “tally,” which induced her to step outside and defend her virtuous course of life from the improper and unjust imputations of Mrs. Rudd. Several witnesses swore point-blank to the reverse of the complainant’s statement; in order to contradict which she pulled a quantity of hair from her bosom, which she said she was ready to swear that Daly had torn from her head. It was also sworn that complainant’s husband had struck the defendant several blows. In this conflicting state of the evidence the bench ordered the defendant to pay the costs of the warrant.
3-: From The Bolton Free Press, a Political, Commercial, and Literary Journal, and General Advertiser (Bolton, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 18th October 1845 [page 3, column 2]:
Standing Affairs.—Amelia Fairclough and Joseph Hyde were charged, on Thursday, with having assaulted Ann Cooper, and she with having assaulted them. […] It was complained that Miss Cooper “thowt they lived tally,” and for such an unreasonable supposition they were never at peace.
4-: From Leigh and Chowbent Sessions, published in The Bolton Chronicle; and South Lancashire Advertiser (Bolton, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 17th January 1846 [page 6, column 1]:
A Queer Couple.—James Brimelow, a strange-looking customer, was charged by his wife with assaulting her. It appeared that the happy pair had not lived together for some time; he, according to her statement, having lived “tally” with another woman for two years; and she, according to his, having not been quite so constantly in the path of rectitude as is generally expected of Eve’s fair (but often frail) daughters.
5-: From an account of a court case, published in The Manchester Times (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Friday 15th January 1847 [page 7, column 5]—Rochdale is a town near Manchester, historically in Lancashire:
By Mr. Fowler: I am no relation, he lives “tally” with my sister, they reside near to Hope chapel, in Rochdale.
6-: From The Preston Chronicle, and Lancashire Advertiser (Preston, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 16th October 1847 [page 5, column 3]:
Assault.—Ellen Atherton preferred a charge of assault against Abel Turton, and stated that she had been along with a friend of hers, who had a cancer in her ear, to a surgeon, and that she had merely called at defendant’s house, on Sunday morning last, in consequence of it being raining heavily at the time, when he came in and kicked her, and afterwards threw her out into the street. On a cross-examination by Mr. Mayhew, it appeared that she had been forbidden the house by defendant, with whom she had formerly lived “tally;” and in consequence of his transferring his affections to another, she had gone to his house to “kick up a row.” Defendant had quietly requested her to leave the house, which she refused to do, at the same time uttering no friendly wishes to his “eyes and limbs,” and also that of her more fortunate rival, with whom the “fickle one” was then residing.—Complainant then produced a witness of the name of Ellen Sixsmith, who corroborated the evidence of complainant, at the same time going through a pantomimic description of the assault, much to the amusement of the court. Several other witnesses were also examined, and some hard swearing for and against. The defendant was fined 1s. and costs.
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