Swann’s Tavern 1670s

Although councilman Colonel Thomas Swann lived across the James River at his Swann Point plantation, he leased a Jamestown tavern that provided accommodations to colonists attending the assembly and courts or conducting business in town. Documents and excavation of a large brick foundation identify this structure as possibly Swann’s tavern, whose elongated four-room ground floor was typical of such establishments. An abundance of bottle glass and a brass spigot from casks of beer or cider stored in the cellar provide additional evidence of that use. Because Swann, nicknamed “ye greate toad,” advised the rebel Nathaniel Bacon, his Swann’s Point plantation remained undamaged during Bacon’s Rebellion, but charred timbers here suggest that his tavern burned during the sack of Jamestown. Repaired by 1679, the tavern reopened and operated with the dozen others in town.

Virginia · United States