Doncastle's Ordinary

James City County · dedicated 2017 · 9686 Old Stage Road, Toano

Here, on the road from Williamsburg to New Kent, Stephen Forneau operated a popular tavern by 1715. Col. John Chiswell had acquired the property by 1755, and George Washington visited several times. On 3 May 1775, Patrick Henry and Hanover County militiamen camped at the ordinary, then owned by Thomas Doncastle. Henry and his men, marching on Williamsburg after royal governor Lord Dunmore removed gunpowder from the public magazine, turned back here after extracting compensation for the powder. The armies of Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Comte de Rochambeau camped at the ordinary, then owned by Adam Byrd, in 1781. The tavern survived until the early 1860s.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

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Doncastle's Ordinary

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