Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

1. Shields Tavern and His Family:

At mid-century there were about seven licensed taverns in Williamsburg. Shields' Tavern catered to the lesser gentry and upper middling ranks of locals and travelers. The gentry generally frequented the Raleigh and Wetherburn's at this period.

The operating tavern will reflect the period around 1750 when James Shields owned the property, kept the tavern, and lived there with his family. At this time the family consisted of:

• James Shields (b. early 1700s, d. fall of 1750), husband and father 2
  • 1.Married about 1730 Elizabeth Cobbs (b. 1704, d. 1737) and had daughters Elizabeth (eldest, married before December 1751), Frances (not mentioned in her father's will, so possibly dead by 1750), and Hannah (youngest)
  • 2.Married about 1738 Anne Marot Ingles (b. early 1700s, d. sometime after August 1769), widow of James Ingles (d. by June 1733)
• Anne Marot Ingles Shields, wife and mother
  • 1.Married about 1730 James Ingles (d. by June 1733) and had daughters Elizabeth (b. early 1730s, d. 1737) and Judith Bray (b. about 1734, d. after 1774)
  • 2.Married about 1738 James Shields (d. 1750)
  • 3.Married 1751 Henry Wetherburn (d. 1760)
• Judith Bray Ingles (about 17, married about 1752 William Armistead (d. by 1762), daughter of Ann Marot by her first husband
• Hannah Shields (about 15), daughter of James Shields by his first wife
• James Shields (about 11), son of James and Anne Shields
• Anne Shields (age 8), daughter of James and Anne Shields
• Christiana Shields (age 5), daughter of James and Anne Shields

The number of slaves at the tavern at this period is unknown. In addition to the tavern property, Shields owned nearby plantations on Mill Swamp,and at Skimino. His twenty-five slaves were dispersed among the three locations. Assuming members of Shields family did some work at the tavern, three or more able adult slaves would be adequate to staff the tavern. Because of the domestic nature of tavern work, it is likely that most of the adult slaves were women.

2. Archaeological Evidence Noted in the "Archaeological Survey of Foundations on Marot's Ordinary" (dated 24 June 1954):

Foundations indicate that the structure without a basement fronting Duke of Gloucester Street at the middle of Lot 25 predates foundations of the larger structure, possibly adjoining, directly to the east (hereafter referred to as Building A).

The structure on the northeast corner of Lot 25 and northwest corner of Lot 26 had a large fireplace and hearth in the basement but the small addition to the east lacked a basement (hereafter referred to as Building B).

3. Eastern Addition (Building B):

When James Shields (the first of three generations of owners of the property with this name) sold Lot 25 to John Marot in early 1708, it only included Building A. Some time after buying a forty-foot square area in the northwest corner of Lot 26 in July 1708, Marot built Building B directly adjoining or nearly adjoining Building A. The basement fireplace was located on Lot 26. Building B apparently survived until destroyed by fire in 1858. How late into the nineteenth century Building A stood is unknown.

Whether the two structures were originally connected so persons could walk from one into the other is not clear from archaeological evidence. However, the wording of John Draper's lease suggests the structures were connected by 1770. To simplify discussion in this memorandum I am assuming the structures were connected by 1750 when Shields owned the property.

4. Shed Additions (Buildings A and B):

Archaeological evidence suggests that sheds were added at the rear of both structures in the third period of construction—undoubtedly by 1717 since Marot's inventory notes "Sundry Goods Kitchen Shed."

5. Keepers and Customers of the Tavern, 1709-1752:

Marot as Tavernkeeper, 1705-1717: In November 1705 Marot received the first of many annual licenses to keep a tavern in Williamsburg. The location of his business until early 1709, assuming Building B was completed by then, is unknown. This was a period of rapid growth for the capital. By 1709, Marot's Tavern was well located downtown and of sufficient size to accommodate locals and travelers with food, drink, and lodging, as well as to provide meeting places for visiting, gaming, or conducting business. In addition to the public room, Marot's inventory suggests that the tavern had several small rooms on the first floor where persons might gather privately. William Byrd's diary records that he and other members of the gentry frequented Marot's and the coffeehouse (location unknown) in 1710 and 1711.

The Tavern, 1718—the Early 1740s: It is likely that after Marot's death the tavern clientele shifted from the well-to-do to the middling ranks of society.

Shortly after Marot's death his widow married Timothy Sullivant. In the spring of 1718 Sullivant obtained an ordinary license but by 1721 he turned the business over to his wife. Anne Sullivant kept the tavern until about 1738 when she moved to Amelia County and began living with her daughter Edith and her son-in-law Samuel Cobbs. Beginning in August 1738 John Taylor operated the tavern for several years.

The Tavern, Early 1740s through 1750: After Mrs. Sullivant's death in 1742 her one-third share of John Marot's estate was divided between their three daughters, one of whom married James Shields about 1738. Shields, assisted by his wife Anne, had operated the tavern for sometime before May 1745 when they purchased the property from Anne's sister Edith and her husband Samuel Cobbs. James Shields continued to keep the tavern until his death in late 1750.

The Tavern, 1750-1752: Anne Shields kept the tavern from late 1750 until she married Henry Wetherburn in July 1751. Several months later Wetherburn advertised the tavern for rent.

By October 1751 Daniel Fisher operated the tavern but his business was short lived. Only Fisher referred to this tavern by the name, the English Coffee House. By February 1752, Fisher gave up tavernkeeping but continued to live in Building B and also operated a grocery store there. The store may have been located in the small eastern addition. Fisher divided Building A into tenements.

After early 1752 the building ceased to be used as a tavern.

6. John Marot's and James Shields' Inventories:

Both inventories were recorded in the York County Court: John Marot's appraised inventory was taken 29 January 1717/18 and James Shields' unappraised room-by-room inventory was presented in court by his widow on 21 January 1750/51.

Although the items in Marot's inventory were not listed by room the following locations in the tavern and elsewhere on the property are specified:

• sundry goods in the "Cuddy" (The Oxford English Dictionary notes cuddy as a variation of cubby, a small room or closet.);
• sundry goods in the closet;
• sundries in the milk house;
• lumber in the yard;
• sundry goods in the billiard room;
• iron work in the kitchen chimney; and
• sundry goods in the kitchen shed.

Shields' inventory lists the following rooms in the tavern in this order: parlor, hall, upstairs, lower room, upstairs, shed, bar, garden room, chamber and kitchen, upstairs, closet, cellar &c.

The nearly comparable number of fully outfitted beds, tables, chairs, and pairs of andirons in the two inventories provides further evidence that the tavern was nearly, if not, as large in Marot's period as during Shields' occupancy:

Neither inventory was taken immediately after the death of the head of the household. John Marot died before mid November 1717 but his personal effects were not inventoried until 29 January 1717/18. James Shields died sometime between 17 September and 19 November 1750 but the inventory of his personal effects was not presented in court until 21 January 1750/51. Although it is less likely that large items were moved, it is quite possible that some furnishings listed in the two inventories were moved about in the interim.

The appraisers of Marot's inventory began by listing chamber furnishings. Thereafter the listing appears to be jumbled but includes enough furnishings for a public room and several smaller private rooms on the first floor of Building B. Marot's cellar was well stocked with a variety of alcoholic beverages and his kitchen contained sufficient utensils to prepare both simple and elaborate meals.

Although Shields' inventory is by room, like most inventories it has some peculiar combinations of items. The person taking the inventory began downstairs in the parlor, went into the hall, then upstairs, then downstairs to the lower room, then upstairs again, presumably to the room directly above the lower room. Next, first floor rooms at the rear of both buildings were inventoried: the shed, bar, and garden room. The next group of rooms inventoried were in Building A: chamber, kitchen, upstairs, and the closet (located on the first or second floor). Then he or she inventoried the basement under Building B. The inventory concludes with a listing of items at the quarter—including 6 25 slaves (some of whom were no doubt in town). Whether the reference to the quarter refers to Shields' plantations at Skimino or Mill Swamp or another location is uncertain.

When the inventory was made the only alcoholic beverages listed were "41 Rennish", presumably bottles of German wine. This single listing for alcoholic beverages in a tavern inventory is unusual. Was the inventory of the cellar complete as turned in or as later recorded into the court records? No further inventory was later presented to the court as occurred in settling Marot's estate. Since it was customary to only list items belonging to the deceased, any items at the tavern belonging to others were deliberately ignored by the inventory taker. Thus, if Mrs. Shields had resupplied the cellar with an assortment of alcoholic beverages after her husband's death, they would not have been inventoried.

Further references to Shields' inventory are included in Section 7.

7. Rationale for Room Locations at Shields Tavern:

My assumptions for room locations at the tavern around 1750 are based on early archaeological evidence, Shields' inventory (and to a lesser extent Marot's inventory), and the general functions of rooms at early Virginia taverns.

8. Assumptions about Possible Degree of Architectural Embellishments at the Tavern, 1709-1750:

Although surviving documentary evidence gives no specific references to architectural embellishments, the size of Marot's Tavern this early in the eighteenth century implies he aimed to attract gentry-level customers. References showing that William Byrd II frequented Marot's prove he succeeded.

By law the public room of a colonial Virginia tavern sold food and drink to the public—anyone who came in off the street. Maximum rates charged for these basic services, for public lodging, and for stabling horses, were set by the local county or hustings court. Keepers of large taverns could also accommodate customers seeking special food and drink in private rooms for social gatherings, business purposes, or for lodging privately. Local competition and the ability of a tavern-keeper to satisfy these demands determined prices for additional services.

Thus the public room may have had fewer architectural embellishments than other first floor rooms which more well-to-do customers might rent for short or long periods during the day for days or weeks at a time.

For a guide to activities and details of how the public room of a mid-eighteenth-century Virginia tavern such as Shields' might have been furnished, see John Greenwood's painting, "Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam" (c. 1752-1758). The Foundation Library has slides, including details, of this painting at the St. Louis Art Museum .

Because of the shift in clientele from the gentry to the middling ranks of society, it is not likely that Building B received much, adornment, except for necessary repairs, between 1717 and 1750.

When Marot purchased Building A in 1708, the dwelling erected several years earlier on the middle of Lot 25 most likely contained two rooms on the first floor: the hall, a large room on the east with a large fireplace, and a smaller unheated room on the west. Archaeological excavations indicate that the fireplace was on the east side of the building. Sometime before 1717 Marot added a shed addition at the rear.

The fact that this building had no cellar and only one fireplace suggests it lacked pretension from the beginning. From about 1709 through 1750 it served the practical function of the tavern kitchen with the family's chamber in the adjoining room to the west and storage in a shed at the rear of the building. One or two rooms on the second floor probably served as sleeping space for the children.

9. Architectural Changes, 1751 to the 1770s:

Soon after he leased the property in 1751, Daniel Fisher divided Building A into several tenements which he sublet. We do not know any specific details of Fisher's renovations but he may have divided several rooms and made other changes to Buildings A and B and the outbuildings on the property—including erecting or moving fences. It is possible that the renovations included putting a balcony on the front of Building A.

In August 1770, then owner William Goodson leased to farrier and blacksmith John Draper (who had occupied this part of the property for nearly a year) the western end of Building A "consisting of two Rooms a Kitchen and a Shed on the Ground Floor and two Rooms above Stairs together with a Blacksmiths 10 Shop behind the same. Also one half of the Garden and such part of the Stable as shall be hereafter immediately laid off for his Use and one of the Cellers under the Dwelling House," (Building B). Goodson reserved the "Liberty of pulling down the old Balcony at the front of the said premises whenever he pleases to do so." If the garden had not been divided by a fence during Fisher's occupancy, a fence was probably erected about 1770.

In June 1772 Goodson leased to Dr. John de Sequeyra 3 rooms at the east end of his dwelling (Building B) with "the Cellar under the same except one room" and the "Rooms above with the Passages and every part of the House aforesaid which lies to the Eastward ... with the small yard adjoining thereto and all Houses Kitchens and Buildings," except the small shop on the east rented to tailor Thomas Craig, and one half of the garden and free use of the well. At this time Dr. de Sequeyra's kitchen was apparently located in a separate outbuilding—possibly directly south of the shop where early archaeologists located a chimney and partial foundations for an outbuilding.

The passages quoted above from Goodson's leases to John Draper and Dr. John de Sequeyra suggest that Buildings A and B contained more rooms than appear in Shields' inventory taken twenty years earlier.

Although I have tried to anticipate and answer questions likely to arise with reference to Shields' Tavern, I may have raised additional questions. I stand by and will attempt to provide further information if necessary.

The following items are attached to this memorandum:

• 1.Charts giving sources and summarizing documentary references to Lots 25 and the northwest corner of Lot 26
• 2. John Marot's inventory (taken 29 January 1717/18)
• 3. James Shields' inventory (presented in court 21 January 1750/51)
• 4. Peter Powell's 1813 insurance policy

IN OBEDIENCE to Two Orders of York Court bearing Date December 16th and Janry. 2d. 1717/18. Wee the Subscribers having met at the House of John Marrott in Williamsburgh decd. & being first Sworn have appraised the Estate of John Marrott decd. which was brought before us by Mrs. Ann Marott Execrx. January 29th 1717/18.

An Inventory of the Estate of James Shields Deceased.