Tavern
Fares
Many old tavern account-books and bills exist to
show us the price of tavern fare at various dates.
Mr. Field gives a bill of board at the Bowen Inn at
Barrington, Rhode Island. John Tripp and his wife put
up at the inn on the 11th of May, 1776.
I suppose the quarter bowls of toddy were for Madam
Tripp.
The house known for many years as the Ellery Tavern
is still standing in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and is
a very good example of the overhanging second story,
as is shown in the front view of it given on page 79;
and also of the lean-to, or sloping-roofed ell, which
is shown by the picture on page 83 of the rear of the
house. This house was built by Parson White in 1707,
and afterward kept as a tavern by James Stevens till
1740; then it came into the hands of Landlord Ellery.
As in scores of other taverns in other towns, the
selectmen of the town held their meetings within its
doors. There were five selectmen in 1744, and their
annual salary for transacting the town's business was
five dollars apiece. The tavern charges, however, for
their entertainment amounted to pound 30, old tenor.
It is not surprising, therefore, to read in the town
records of the following year that the citizens voted
the selectmen a salary of pound 5, old tenor, apiece,
and "to find themselves." Nevertheless, in
1749, there was another bill from the Ellery Tavern of
pound 78, old tenor, for the selectmen who had been
sworn in the year previously and thus welcomed,
"Expense for selectmen and Licker, pound 3.
18s." The Ellery Tavern has seen many another
meeting of good cheer since those days.
The selectmen of the town of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, met at the Blue Anchor Tavern, which
was established as an ordinary as early as 1652. Their
bill for 1769 runs thus:--
"Ordination Day" was almost as great a
day for the tavern as for the meeting-house. The
visiting ministers who came to assist at the religious
service of ordination of a new minister were usually
entertained at the tavern. Often a specially good beer
was brewed called "ordination beer," and in
Connecticut an "ordination ball" was given
at the tavern--this with the sanction of the parsons.
The bills for entertaining the visitors, for the
dinner and lodging at the local taverns, are in many
cases preserved.
The bill is endorsed with unconscious humor,
"This all paid for except the Ministers
Rum."
A copy is given of a bill of the "O.
Cromwell's Head Tavern" of Boston, which was made
from a plate engraved by Paul Revere. This tavern was
kept for over half a century by members of the
Brackett family. It was distinctly the tavern of the
gentry, and many a distinguished guest had
"board, lodging, and eating" within its
walls, as well as the wine, punch, porter, and liquor
named on the bill. It will be noted that the ancient
measure--a pottle--is here used. Twenty years before
the Revolutionary War, and just after the crushing
defeat of the British general, Braddock, in what was
then the West, an intelligent young Virginian named
George Washington, said to be a good engineer and
soldier, lodged at the Cromwell's Head Tavern, while
he conferred with Governor Shirley, the great war
Governor of the day, on military affairs and projects.
When this same Virginian soldier entered Boston at the
head of a victorious army, he quartered his troops in
Governor Shirley's mansion and grounds.
The sign-board of this tavern bore a portrait of
the Lord Protector, and it is said it was hung so low
that all who passed under it had to make a necessary
reverence.
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