Residency

The term resident has roots in feudal law. It was used to describe the tenants that were attached to the land and considered in fee (property). A “Lord” has the appended right to hold their own private courts over their tenants, and many of these principles survive to this day. When you’re asked if you’re a resident by the Federal Government, you’re being asked if you’re willing to be a tenant in their manor and subject to their private courts.

Resident Definition: Blacks Law Dictionary Page 1473
Also a tenant, who was obliged to reside on his lord’s land, and not to depart from the same; called, also, “homme levant et couch- ant,” and in Normandy, “resscant du fief.”

Tenant Definition: Black’s Law Dictionary, Page 1635
One who holds of another (called "lord" or "superior") by some service; as fealty or rent.

Lord Definition: Black’s Law Dictionary, Page 1093
A feudal superior or proprietor; 'one of whom a fee or estate is held.
Lord of a manor: The grantee or owner of a manor.

Manor Definition: Black’s Law Dictionary, Page 1115
In English law, the manor was originally a tract of land granted out by the king to a lord or other great person, in fee. It was otherwise called a "barony" or "lordship," and appendant to it was the right to hold a court, called the "court-baron." The lands comprised in the manor were divided […]

but of these part were held by tenants in copyhold, e., those holding by a copy of the record in the lord's court; […]

The word also signified the franchise of having a manor, with jurisdiction for a courtbaron and the right to the rents and services of copyholders.

Feudal Law: Black’s Law Dictionary, Page 749
The body of jurisprudence relating to feuds; the real-property law of the feudal system; the law anciently regulating the property relations of lord and vassal, and the creation, incidents, and transmission of feudal estates. […]

Survivals of the feudal law, to the present day, so affect and color that branch of jurisprudence as to require a certain knowledge of the feudal law in order to the perfect comprehension of modern tenures and rules of real-property law.