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[Diary entry: 5 May 1768]

5. Dined at Mrs. Campbells.

Christiana Campbell’s tavern was GW’s habitual lodging place in Williamsburg from 1761 to 1771. On this visit to the city, he paid Mrs. Campbell £2 10s. “for Board,” which included his lodgings as well as the daily breakfasts and other occasional meals that he ate at the tavern (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 274). Mrs. Campbell (1722–1792) was playfully described by a young Scottish merchant in 1783 as “a little old Woman, about four feet high; & equally thick, a little turn up Pug nose, a mouth screw’d up to one side” (macaulay description begins “Journal of Alexander Macaulay.” William and Mary Quarterly, 1st ser., 11 (1902–3): 180–91. description ends , 187–88). The daughter of a Williamsburg innkeeper named John Burdett (d. 1746), she had married Dr. Ebenezer Campbell, an apothecary in Blandford, and had lived there with him until his death about 1752 (jett description begins Dora C. Jett. Minor Sketches of Major Folk and Where They Sleep: The Old Masonic Burying Ground, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Richmond, 1928. description ends , 24–25). Returning to Williamsburg a short time later, she had by 1760 begun to operate her tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street in the second block from the Capitol (gibbs description begins Patricia Ann Gibbs. “Taverns in Tidewater Virginia, 1700–1774.” Master’s thesis, College of William and Mary, 1968. description ends , 152–54). She was assisted in her business by her unmarried daughter Molly.

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