About four weeks before GW arrived in town, Christiana Campbell had moved again, this time to Waller Street behind the Capitol, and in a newspaper advertisement she had announced that “I shall reserve Rooms for the Gentlemen who formerly lodged with me” (Va. Gaz., P&D, 3 Oct. 1771). But for the first time in ten years, GW did not stay with her. He chose, instead, to lodge with John Carter, a well-established merchant who ran a general store next door to the Raleigh Tavern and who at this time lived in a house directly across the street from the Raleigh (Va. Gaz., P&D, 6 Feb. 1772). Carter had not advertised rooms for rent, but he, like several merchants and craftsmen in town, was apparently supplementing his income by lodging visitors in his house during public times (GIBBS description begins Patricia Ann Gibbs. “Taverns in Tidewater Virginia, 1700–1774.” Master’s thesis, College of William and Mary, 1968. description ends , 133).

The play was performed by the American Company of Comedians, which had again returned to Williamsburg from Annapolis (RANKIN description begins Hugh F. Rankin. The Theater in Colonial America. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1960. description ends , 164).