Battle of Yorktown

14. Swan Tavern

Yorktown, VA

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The Swan Tavern is located on colonial lot 25 in Historic Yorktown. A gentleman by the name of Charles Hansford first acquired the land from the town trustees in November of 1691. According to the terms of the agreement, he was obligated to erect a structure on the land but failed to do so, and the land reverted back to the town trustees. Daniel Taylor, the next owner, purchased the property in 1706 for 180 pounds of tobacco. He only held the lot for eighteen months before selling it to James Sclater. Sclater and his wife evidently built on the property, since they owned the lot for ten years. They sold it to Benjamin Clifton in 1716. In 1719, Scotch Tom Nelson and Joseph Walker purchased the site and erected the Swan Tavern. Scotch Tom's son William inherited his father's share in the estate and purchased Joseph Walker's portion as well, making him the sole owner. He passed the property to his son Thomas Nelson Jr. in 1761. Thomas Nelson Jr. eventually became Governor of Virginia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The original Swan Tavern remained in business from 1722 until 1852, providing accommodations for travelers and entertainment for visitors and locals alike. Freemasons used it as a meeting place beginning in 1755 until sometime before 1780. Customers were not always able to pay their tabs in cash, so tavern keepers sometimes took other items in exchange, such as farm produce, rum, butter and brown sugar. This system worked well for owners such as the Nelson family, Scervant Jones, Lawrence Gibbons and Matthew Wills. Robert Anderson was the last tavern owner. He attempted to put his customers on a cash-only basis, but this evidently did not work as well as he had planned, since he was out of business by 1852. The Swan Tavern met its end during the Civil War. The Union Army's magazine in the courthouse across the street exploded during a local bakery fire, and the tavern was destroyed in the blast. Samuel Bent acquired the empty lot in 1873 and put a new establishment on the site. The Bent Hotel descended to his children after his death in 1889, but it was destroyed in a fire in 1915. Archaeologists excavated the site between 1932 and 1934, and discovered the remains of Bent's foundations and the original Swan Tavern foundations, as well as the remains of a separate kitchen, smokehouse, stable and dairy. The Swan Tavern was reconstructed in 1934 from information found in insurance records, personal inventories, wills, photographs and archaeological evidence.