Virginia Gazette: With the Latest Advices, Foreign and Domestick- April 11th, 1751

Virginia Gazette: With the Latest Advices, Foreign and Domestick- April 11th, 1751

Ordinary
Tavern
Gambling
Drunkenness
Fighting
Illicit activity

A reader of the Virginia Gazette sent a letter to the printer, a copy of a letter sent from a clergyman to a King’s Attorney. In it, the clergyman opposes the opening of any new Ordinaries in the county, complaining about cards, dice, horse-racing, cock-fighting, drunkenness, swearing, cursing, perjury, blasphemy, cheating, lying, and fighting in taverns. He implores the King’s Attorney not to allow any more Ordinaries in the “Interest of Religion.” This passionate vilification of tavern activities and culture not only reveals the many activities which could take place at a tavern, but also the social understanding of what a tavern meant. The clergyman clearly feels that the “tavern” is meant to be a rest house for travelers, as he states that an ordinary’s “uses” have been “perverted” from their original purposes, to provide “refreshment” for a weary traveler. If a tavern is meant to be a symbol of hospitality, one which Americans took very seriously and provided as a demonstration of good will, wealth, and moral fortitude, then taverns in which illicit activities were occurring were then running in contrast to the function the colonists had intended.

Anonymous clergyman- sent to editor William Hunter

Virginia Gazette

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

11, April, 1751

Kira Stalker