Definition of "inquiration"

"It's all right," Joey startled him by announcing, toppling his tower of parcels into the cart. "Oi've made inquirations. The old Flynt chap be aloive and kickin'."

1919, Israel Zangwill, Jinny the Carrier: A Folk-comedy of Rural England

[…] she found (as she believed) a friend; a decent woman as spoke to her about the needle-work as she had been brought up to do, about finding plenty of it fur her, about a lodging fur the night, and making secret inquiration […]

1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 51, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850