FITCHETT Elizabeth

Family/Spouse: SHARPE Francis. Francis (son of SHARPE Francis and HARRIS Ann) was born in 1680 in Northumberland County, Va; died in Jan 1740 in Isle of Wight County, VA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Will: 21 Apr 1759, Dendron, Surry, Virginia, United States

Notes:

Red Lion Inn
A BRIEF RESUME OF NOTES ON FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS
ASSOCIATED WITH THE RED LION INN.(Note: This resume is confined to source data contained in the Research Department files.)
AUGUST, 1932.
RED LION INN ^{Block 17 Bldg 3B}
One of the things that set Williamsburg apart from other Tidewater Virginia towns was the fact that by its very nature it had to be supplied with an unusually large number of taverns. Four times each year the general courts convened, twice each year the House of Burgesses sat, and on all of these occasions the officials, planters, lawyers, merchants and traders, frequently accompanied by their families, arrived at the little Capital city. Some few of the notables had town houses for the accommodation of themselves and their families, but the greater majority were dependent on public houses and the strain upon the housing facilities of the town was great.
One Frenchman travelling through pre-Revolutionary Williamsburg said that as many as five or six thousand people were in town on court days. ⁽¹⁾ Another traveller, in 1736, was amazed at the number of coaches thronging the streets bringing the planters, Councillors, Burgesses and others to their Capital. He wrote, "Williamsburgh is the most wretch'd contriv'd Affair for the Capitol of a Country, being near three Miles from the Sea, is a bad Situation. There is nothing considerable in it, but the College, the Governor's house, and one or two more, which are no bad Piles; and the Prodiguous Number of Coaches that crowd the deep, sandy Streets of this little City." ⁽²⁾
There were great taverns in those days, The Raleigh, Wetherburn's, Ayscough's, Mrs. Campbell's, The English Coffee House and the Sign of the King's Arms, to mention a few of those which accommodated the gentry, but where did the hundreds of others stay?
There was the Red Lion Inn practically adjacent to the Capitol, the Sign of Edinburgh Castle, the Rose and Crown, the Blue Bell, the Market Square and the Brick House, in addition to innumerable others named for their keepers. In fact, in a very literal sense, every house became a public house in "public times" as they were called. There were few, if any, that did not at one time in their history serve as inns, or at least as lodging houses.
Even with the town so liberally supplied with taverns, inns and ordinaries, and with private houses accommodating their share of lodgers, there was still tremendous pressure on housing facilities. There was one other solution to the problem, and if disgruntled travellers from abroad are to be believed, it was a frequent one.
"In private houses as well as inns several people are crowded together in the same room", wrote one European, "and in the latter it very commonly happens that after you have been some time in bed, a stranger of any condition comes into the room, pulls off his clothes, and places himself without ceremony between your sheets." ⁽¹⁾
Another commentator speaking of the crowding in Virginia houses says, "... and they make no ceremony of putting three or four persons into the same room, nor do these make any objections to being thus heaped together." ⁽²⁾
3
The Red Lion Inn was probably typical of a large class of taverns and had the distinction of being one of Williamsburg's earliest public houses. It was built by Francis Sharp between 1718 and 1719. ⁽¹⁾ On May 19, 1718 Sharp was granted his first license to keep an ordinary. ⁽²⁾
For this purpose he and two bondsmen pledged 10,000 pounds of tobacco to "Our Sovereign Lord the King" to "constantly find and provide in his said ordinary good, wholesome and cleanly lodging and diet for travellers and stableage, fodder and provender for their horses." He was further pledged not to "suffer any unlawful gaming in his house, nor on the Sabbath day suffer any person to tipple or drink more than is necessary."
Sharp owned also the tavern to the east of the Red Lion called the Sign of Edinburgh Castle. After his death he bequeathed a tavern to each of his sons, Jacob and John, John inherited the Red Lion Inn. ⁽³⁾
In 1742 Thomas Penman, by trade a carpenter and joiner, became also an inn keeper. He rented Sharp's inn and agreed to repair and add to the buildings instead of paying rent. This agreement was to build a brick chimney to the "Billyard House" or to build a new kitchen. Sharp was to rebuild the "shed" to the "Mansion house" as the inn was called, and put it in repair. ⁽⁴⁾
Penman sub-let the inn to Seth Seekright who became involved in a law suit in 1743 with John Burdette, keeper of the ordinary next door, claiming that the latter's building encroached on his lot.
4
The York county court ordered an exact survey made of the disputed lot line, and Joseph Davenport, surveyor of the city of Williamsburg, made a plat. He drew on the plat a small scale elevation of each tavern, and this was entered in the court order books, thereby preserving the significant architectural features of two early taverns which were destined to disappear more than one hundred years later. ⁽¹⁾
Penman won the suit and was awarded damages. Penman belongs rightly in the great oligarchy of Williamsburg innkeepers who were connected not only through their common business, but through ties of kinship and marriage. Penman's daughter, Elizabeth married Anthony Hay, keeper of the celebrated Raleigh. ⁽²⁾
While Penman was still leasing the Red Lion Inn, John Sharp sold it to Henry Wetherburn in October, 1772 for£80. ⁽³⁾
Henry Wetherburn was one of Williamsburg's most enterprising innkeepers, who at one time held a large amount of good tavern property. He also married two wealthy widows who had extensive holdings of this sort, too. At one time he had been keeper of the Raleigh, but soon moved into a tavern of his own.
His first wife, Mary, was the widow of Henry Bowcock, an innkeeper, who at one time owned a building on the Raleigh tavern site.
John Blair in his diary wrote on July 3, 1751, "Very rainy while at Mrs. Wetherburn's funer^l. He has found her hoard they say".
5
A series of three cryptic notes in John Blair's hand in an almanac of that same year refer to Wetherburn's second marriage:
"July 1. M^rs. Wetherburn died
3. now buried in wett
11: H. Wetherburn married to Mrs. Sheilds." ⁽¹⁾
Mrs. Sheilds ⁽²⁾ had been Ann Marot, daughter of Jean Marot, a French Huguenot who kept a tavern across the street from the Red Lion Inn in the early part of the eighteenth century. When her father died in 1717, Francis Sharp, keeper of the Red Lion was arrested on the suspicion of murder, but evidently was acquitted speedily as he took out his first ordinary license a year later. ⁽³⁾
Ann first departed from the innkeeper tradition when she married James Inglis, son of Mungo Inglis the first grammar master of William and Mary College. After his death, she married James Sheilds, owner of a tavern just west of the Red Lion Inn, and in 1750 he died. As a daughter of one innkeeper and widow of another, Ann Marot-Inglis-Sheilds brought with her a large estate when she married her neighbor, Henry Wetherburn a year after her husband's death, and just eleven days after the first Mrs. Wetherburn's demise. She survived him.
As Henry Wetherburn kept a tavern himself in several places chiefly in the so-called "Richard Bland" house across from the Raleigh, he rented the Red Lion Inn to various tenant keepers during the rest of his life.
Little record of these tenants exists. The inn, so convenient to the Capitol continued to receive its usual share of the custom. Men met here to complain of the burden of taxation imposed by the Crown, to game at one-and-thirty and backgammon, to play billiards, to tipple (but not more than was necessary") and to transact business.
The sign which hung before the inn, the sign of the Red Lion, was significant of the desire of the Virginia innkeeper and his patrons to transplant the atmosphere of the English inn to their new environment. In England, in Essex county alone, there were thirty-eight Red Lion Inns at one time, and so in each of the American colonies an echo of this old country popularity could be found.
There are two advertisements in the Virginia Gazette of lessees of Wetherburn which are of interest:
"November 6, 1766. Stephen Buck Tailor from London, Begs leave to inform his Customers, and others, that he has remov'd from the Red Lyon to a house adjoining Mr. Attorney's; where he continues to carry on his business with the greatest expedition... N.B. Ladies Riding Habits neatly Made..." ⁽¹⁾
"March 24, 1768. Walter Lenox, Perukemaker, Begs leave to inform the Publick in General, and his Customers in Particular, that he has moved to the house known by the name of the Red Lion, next door above Mr. Rind's Printing Office, where he carries on his business in all its branches as usual; and as he has good accommodation for private lodgers, he will be much obliged to those Gentlemen who may please to favour him with their Custom, and they may depend upon the best usage for themselves and horses..." ⁽²⁾
7
During the Revolutionary War the council of the state of Virginia ordered that a warrant be issued for one pound eighteen shillings to Walter Lenox, "for boarding sick soldiers". ⁽¹⁾
When Wetherburn died in 1760 he bequeathed the bulk of his large estate to his nephew, Edward Nicholson ⁽²⁾, who in this way acquired the Red Lion Inn, which he too, leased to various keepers.
In the patriotic fervor of the Revolution any name so frankly English as the "Red Lion" savored too much of loyalism so the ancient name was changed to Union Tavern. ⁽³⁾ This was a common phenomenon of the war in all the colonies, and patriotic Williamsburg obliterated all traces of names like Sign of the King's Arms and Red Lion Inn by a deluge of Eagle Taverns and Union Taverns.
Habits of a lifetime were not changed however with the mere repainting of an offending Tory sign - Union Tavern it might have been for the brief period of militant enthusiasm but the old habits reasserted themselves, and as the Red Lion Inn its memory was passed down to the descendants of the patriots.
In 1789 Henry W. Nicholson sold the inn to Samuel Crawley while it was in the tenure of Ebenezer Ewing and Joseph Bryan.⁽⁴⁾ In 1802 the building was tenanted by John Crump who insured it with a Richmond insurance company which drew such careful plats of insured property that they made a valued contribution to the architectural history of Williamsburg. ⁽⁵⁾
8
The removal of the capital to Richmond brought about the decay of many formerly flourishing taverns. Travellers were no longer amazed at the throngs of carriages in the dusty streets or the thousands who attended during court sessions, instead they painted a picture of decay. Isaac Weld wrote that the town was to ruin at the close of the eighteenth century and that a number of houses were uninhabited. ⁽¹⁾
Johann David Schoepf ⁽²⁾ a German traveller, describing the Williamsburg of that day wrote, "Thus like so many older ones in Europe, do cities of this New World lament for the uncertain fate of a past glory."
Without its former patronage the Red Lion was one of those that succumbed to the passage of time. Mrs. Victoria Lee who wrote "Williamsburg in 1861" ⁽³⁾ said that at that time the house was occupied by three families of refugees from the War Between the States. The house at that time called the Red Lion Inn, and Lee recalled a hunting scene painted above the mantel in one of the lower rooms which had doubtless looked down on many scenes of past conviviality. Some years later the house was so dilapidated that it was razed to make room for a new one. ⁽⁴⁾
From a number of contemporaneous drawings, insurance policies and documents it is possible to reconstruct a replica of this inn upon its old foundations, so that not even a relatively obscure inn which flourished in the day of the colonial capital can be said to have passed into oblivion.
Harold R. Shurtleff, Director
Department of Research Record.
History by:
Helen Bullock.

Will:
Transcription of the will of John Sharpe
Will of John Sharp
In the name of God, Amen, this twenty first day of April, one thousand seven hundred and fifty nine, I John Sharp of the county of Surry, being in a low state of health, but of perfect mind and memory, thanks be to Almighty God, but calling to the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men living once to die. Do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament that is to say, principally and first of all, I recommend my soul into the hands of Almighty God that gave it and my body in the ground to be buried in a Christian like manner at the discretion of my executrix, hereafter named. Nothing doubting, but at the general resurrection, I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God. Ye as touching much worldly estate, wherewith it has pleased God to help me within this life, I give and dispose of the same in the following manner and form-
I give and bequeath to my loving wife, Constant Sharp, my desk corner cupbord and falling table during her life, also one feather bed and furniture. Likewise, I give her the labour of my three negroes, James, Charles and V. Jane during her life. Also I give her the labor of three other negroes, Daniel, Frank and McCall until the legatees, hereafter named, comes to the age of twenty one to receive them and further my Will and desire is that my loving wife should have the sole use of all my land and plantation during her natural life and after her death to my son, Burwell Sharp and if he should die before he comes of age, to be sold and the money arising, thereby to be equally divided between my three daughters, Elizabeth, Mary and Cherry. I give and bequeath to my son Burwell Sharp, one feather bed and furniture and also do set him free at the age of eighteen years to act and do for himself, free from under anyone's jurisdiction or command as fully as though her were twenty one years.
I give to my daughter, Elizabeth Sharp, two negroes
I give to my daughter Mary Sharp, two negroes
I give to my daughter Cherry Sharp, two negroes
I desire that the remainder of my estate after legacies and true debt is paid, should after decease of my wife be equally divided among my four children.
I appoint my loving wife, Constant Sharp and my Son, Burwell Sharp.
Signed,
John I Sharp
Probated September 18, 1759

John married SHARPE Constant --LNU-- about 1750. Constant and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Will: 18 Aug 1799

Notes:

Spouse & Children
     Mary Gibbons
     1748 - 1787
     Wyatt Sharpe
     1774 -
     John Gibbons Sharpe
     1778 - 1822
     Thomas Sharpe
     1780 -
Other Spouse & Children
     Sarah White
     1771 -
     Polly Sharpe
     Thomas Sharpe
     Mary Suzanah Sharpe
     1794 -
     Elizabeth Sorsby Sharpe
     1795 -
     James N. Sharpe

Will:
will written 8/18/1799 and probated on 10/22/1799. See below for transcript of will:

Transcription of the Will of Burwell Sharpe
Will of Burwell Sharp - Written August 18, 1799 and probated on October 22, 1799

In the name of God amen, I Burwell Sharp of this county of Surry being sick and weak but of disposing mind do make and ordain this my last will and testament and first and principally I recommend my soul into the hands of God who gave it and my body I request may be buried in a Christian like manner at the discretion of my executors.
Imprismis, my desire is that my just debts be paid first. Item, I lend unto my wife Sarah Sharp one third part of my land including the house and improvements thereon with one half my apple orchard and the still and its implements, also one third part of my Negroes during her life. At her death my will and desire is that the Negroes lent to her may be equally divided among all my children then alive, to them and to their heirs forever. Item, I give and bequeath unto my said wife one third part of all my personal estate (except the Slaves) to her and to her heirs forever. Item, My will and desire is that all my slaves (except those ? to my wife) may be equally divided among all my children, to them and to their heirs forever.
Item, before any distribution of my personal estate, I desire my son Thomas Sharp may have my dark bay colt, now three years old to him and to his heirs forever.
Item, my will and desire is that the remainder of my personal property may be sold by my executors at twelve months credit and the money arising therefrom to be equally divided among all my children to them and to their heirs forever.
Item, That part of my Estate which may be allotted for those children I have had by my wife Sarah, I desire may remain in her possesion until they shall come of age, or marry and that she may not be accountable for the profits, hoping that she will take care to have them well brought up and educated, provided nevertheless, that should my said wife marry or die in the meantime, in either case I desire that they may have guardinan appointed by the Court.
Item, I give and bequeath unto my son John Gibbons Sharp all my land (reserving unto my said wife the use of that part before mentioned during her natural life) to him and to his heirs forever. My will and desire is that my friends, Archibald Cocke, James L. Lane, Archibald Davis and David Sibell, or any two them (when requested so to do by my executors or by any of the legatees herein mentioned) do log off and ? apart my wife's part of the land and slaves, and make equal distribution of the remainder of the slaves agreable to the preceeding clauses of this will and lastly I do hereby nominate and appoint my friend James Kee and my son Wyatt Sharp my executors, hoping they will see my will performed; In witness whereof I have ? set my hand and seal this eighteenth day of August in the year of Lord Christ, one thousand seven hundred and ninety nine.
Signed, sealed and published and declared before and in the prescence of
Thomas (his mark) Clary
James White
Elizabeth (her mark) White Burwell (his mark) Sharp (Seal)
In a court held for Surry County October 22 1799 -
Burwell Sharp deceased, was presented in Court by James Kee, one of the Executors therein named and the same being proved by the oaths of Thomas Clary and James White two of the witnesses thereto, is by the Court ordered to be recorded and on the motion of the said Executor who made oath agreeable to law and gave bond with Mary Sharp and William Clinsh, Jr. his securities in the penal sum of six thousand dollars conditioned for the due administation of said decedents estate certificate is granted him for obtaining a probate therof in due form. Wyatt Sharp who is nominated executor to the within will personally appeares in Court and fefused to take upon himself the burthen and exception of the same which is also ordered to be recorded

Burwell married GIBBONS Mary on 25 Jan 1773. Mary was born on 10 Oct 1748 in Charles Parrish, York County, VA; died on 21 Jun 1787 in Sussex County, VA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Burwell married WHITE Sarah on 22 Apr 1792 in Dendron, Surry, Virginia, United States. Sarah and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married WHITE Elizabeth on 22 May 1801 in Dendron, Surry, Virginia, United States. Elizabeth died after 1830. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]