Williamsburg VA, Travel in the 1700’s

After narrowly escaping recruitment into General George Washington’s army we stopped by Wetherburn’s Tavern.

In the 1700’s women didn’t travel much, and if they did generally they stayed with family and friends in the area.

The men stayed in taverns that reminded me a bit of a college dorm. Multiple men, related or not, friendly or not, stayed in the same room, even sharing beds.

Privacy back then was not a big deal like it is now and many times you had to pass through other sleeping quarters to get to yours.

Rooms in that time period were multi-purpose. This room currently is setup classroom style and from the looks of the equipment the topic is astronomy. Most tables are drop leaf and can be pushed up against walls to make room for a dance perhaps or a large dinner party.

The King required all taverns to have a certain standard of room and dining accommodations and dictated the price to be charged. There were no other restrictions and the tavern owners did provide a higher standard of room and dining and price point for their other rooms.

The bedrooms were more private and the dining accommodations more opulent. Not only were they served on fine china but the walls were adorned with portraits of famous persons and more impressive fine furniture displaying the tavern owner’s wealth.

For the King’s dictated standard dining, there were pictures of outdoor scenes on the walls, less impressive furniture and the food was served on pewter plates.

The reason for the pewter plates was quite simple, kitchens were outside and it was too easy to break a plate when bringing it from the kitchen to the house.

The meals were simple: meat, vegetables, potatoes, and there was no menu. You got what the cook was preparing that day.

In the backyard, along with the kitchen, was the smokehouse, well, scullery, and garden.

As you can see, there isn’t a great deal of room to prepare a variety of foods, nor did they have the resources to exploit.

Speaking of food….time for lunch. We were told the best food in Colonial Williamsburg was Chowining’s Tavern.

They seated us in an upper floor room at our own table. We noticed that even though the restaurant had empty tables they would seat strangers together at the same table, especially those in two’s. The other tables were used for bigger groups.

This is apparently how it was done in Colonial times.