William Courts kept an inn, commonly called the Stone House, at the ferry landing in Colchester (Va. Gaz., P, 8 Sept. 1775). The Recruiting Officer: A Comedy, by George Farquhar, was a genial satire about the British army and its brutal recruiting system. First performed in London in 1706, the play was a great favorite of English and American audiences throughout the eighteenth century (FARQUHAR description begins Charles Stonehill, ed. The Complete Works of George Farquhar. 2 vols. 1930. Reprint. New York, 1967. description ends , 2:33–112). This production was staged by the American Company of Comedians, which had recently left Annapolis and would soon return to Williamsburg for the spring court days.