Jefferson stays at 30 The Strand

Thomas Jefferson Stays at Mrs. Clay's Tavern in New Castle

Thomas Jefferson was a Virginia delegate to the 2nd Continental Congress in Philadelphia in the spring of 1775. After the "Olive Branch Petition" was passed on July 8 in an attempt to avoid war, he set out to go back home to Monticello.

He stopped in New Castle at Mrs. Clay's tavern on August 2 for one night's stay. Why did he go through Delaware? Why did he stop in New Castle? We don't know. Perhaps fellow delegates George Read or Thomas McKean had suggested it? Both lived or had lived only a few houses down The Strand.

In any case we know he did go there since he kept an expense account of daily expenditures. The maximum legal price in 1778 was £0 - 1s -6p for 'Lodging in a good Bed, with Clean sheets', and £- 6s - 3p for 'A Dinner of Supper of the Best Kind for a total of 7s - 9p. Jefferson paid considerably more than that: £1 - 3s- 4p for lodging, supper etc. at Mrs. Clays. Maybe there were extra charges then as today: private room, food for his horse, room for his slave Jesse? A postillion rides along ahead of a carriage, holding the horse's reins.

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Memorandum Books

August 1775
1	Burn the barber	3/
	Hillegas	8/6
	Smith dinner & club.
	Bringhurst sundries.
	Recd. of Colo. Harrison to form common stock for our travelling expences	£6-16.
	Pd. ferriage. over Schuylkill	1/3.
	Pd. punch &c. Mrs. Withay's in Chester	3/.
	Pd. toddy at a country tavern	1/.
	Pd. ferriage over Christiana²⁷	1/8.
2.	Pd. lodging, supper &c. Mrs. Clay's²⁸, Newcastle	£1-3-4.
	Pd. breakfast &c. McCullogh's, Warwick	7/8.
	Pd. a sadler	2/6.
	Pd. punch &c. at Downs's	4/4.
3.	Pd. supper, lodging &c. Worrall's, in Newtown upon Chester²⁹	£1-11.
	Pd. breakfast, ferriage &c. Hodges's³⁰ Rockhall	£3-1.
	Gave Skipper	1/8.
	Pd. barber at Annapolis	2/.
	Pd. ferriage to Greentree's boat	£1-1-8.
	Pd. a sadler	5/.
4.	Pd. lodging, supper &c. Middleton's, Annapolis	£1-14-5.
	Pd. crossing at London town ferry	8/.
	Pd. breakfast &c. Mrs. Gibson's, Marlborough	8/11.
	Pd. dinner &c. Piscataway 12/11.
5.	Pd. ferriage &c. Young's on Patowmack	£1-8. Virginia currency
	Gave boatmen at Howe's 2/.
6.	Pd. supper, lodging &c. at Buckner's,³¹ Portroyal	£1-5s-6d.
	Pd. breakfast &c. at Bowling green 5/ which ends our common expences traveling
	Recd. of Colo. Harrison at sundry times to balance acct. of common expences	7/6.
8.	Gave Jesse³² for riding postllion	6/.

[continues...]

[footnotes] .

28	Ann Curtis (Mrs. Slator) Clay (d. 1789) kept an inn on the site of present 30 The Strand, New Castle, Del. (Jeannette Eckman, "The Strand," 1947-1949, typescript report in Historical Society of Delaware, Wilmington, Del.; J. Thomas Scharf, History of Delaware, 1609-1888 [Philadelphia, 1888], ii, 1016).
29	Now Chestertown, Md.
30	James Hodges operated the "White Rock-Hall ferry," which crossed the Chesapeake Bay from Rock Hall to Annapolis, and kept the ferryhouse where TJ breakfasted (Maryland Gazette, 30 Nov. 1775; Circuit Court Minute Book, 1774-1782, Kent County, Md., Hall of Records of Maryland, Annapolis)
31	William Buckner kept a tavern at Port Royal on the Rappahannock River in Caroline County (Thomas E. Campbell, Colonial Caroline: A History of Caroline County, Virginia [Richmond, 1954], p. 219, 4
32	Jesse was a slave of Patrick Henry.

Jefferson traveled via Chester, New Castle, Warwick, Rockhall, then boats to Annapolis and finally Port Royal on the Rappahannock over 6 days. It's a lot easier now. I drove to Yorktown this summer in 5 hours via US 301 with a stop in Port Royal to stretch my legs. The town now has three museums and a population of 200. The most interesting building (for sale) was where John Wilkes Booth paused on his way to the farm where he was captured and killed.

You might note that Jefferson had the slave Jesse riding as postillion (riding on one of the horses pulling the vehicle). Jefferson went to Philadelphia in a phaeton with an expensive entourage. Dumas Malone in Jefferson The Virginian wrote: "The future champion of democracy traveled impressively. By the time he reached Philadelphia he had four horses. One of these, an animal named General, sired by the noted Janus and six years old, he purchased for £50 in Fredericksburg, where he remained three days and also bought harness, a postilion's whip, and swingletrees. He had at least two servants: Jesse, who rode postilion, and Richard, apparently a body servant." (p. 202). A phaeton was the sports car of its day, and a reproduction of Jefferson's phaeton is in Monticello. Robert Hemings (Sally's brother) drove it at Monticello.

Jim Meek
2021