Markers of History

Historic Jamestowne mark­ers
Swann’s Tavern, 1670s

Location: Historic Jamestown, Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:55pm

Transcription of marker: Although coun­cil­man Colonel Thomas Swann resided across the James River at his Swann Point plan­ta­tion, he also leased a Jamestown tav­ern that pro­vided accom­mo­da­tions to colonists who attended the assem­bly and courts, or had busi­ness in town.

Documents and exca­va­tion of a large brick foun­da­tion iden­tify this struc­ture as pos­si­ble Col. Swann’s tav­ern. The 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 such use.

Because Col. Swann, nick­named “ye greate toad,” advised the rebel Nathaniel Bacon, his Swann’s Point plan­ta­tion remained undam­aged dur­ing Bacon’s Rebellion. Charred tim­bers here, how­ever, sug­gest that his tav­ern burned dur­ing the sack of Jamestown. Repaired by 1679, the tav­ern con­tin­ued to oper­ate along with the dozen oth­ers in the town.

My impres­sions: The first thing that started ring­ing bells from this marker for me is the name Nathaniel Bacon, because at about the time I was start­ing to snarf land­marks and log them on Markeroni (and later on this blog), my wife and I drove to a church retreat a cou­ple of hours away. And on the way, we passed numer­ous his­tor­i­cal mark­ers. On the way home, I counted about a dozen. But because of dis­tance, time, and the fact that we were dri­ving another mem­ber of our con­gre­ga­tion with us, we didn’t stop for any of them, but I def­i­nitely remem­ber the odd-sounding title of Bacon’s Castle. So, while I expect I’ll learn more when we make our next trip that way and I’m able to read the marker, I also know what name to research should I want to learn more in the interim.

The other thing, related to that, is to think about the influ­ence of being an insider. From the retelling on this marker, Swann was able to use his insider’s “pull” to keep his lands across the river safe from Bacon and his rebel­lion. But it also shows that the pull has lim­its, as the tav­ern here appar­ently burned. Some things seem to be with us for­ever, and insider influ­ence seems to be one of them!