New London County CT Archives News.....Stonington's Old Taverns (Part i) February 1907
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Barbara W. Brown buwbrown@comcast.net October 31, 2009, 4:41 pm

Unidentified Stonington Area Newspaper February 1907
Interesting address written for (and read before) the Stonington Genealogical 
and Historical Society by Miss Wheeler.
   As you know, most of our history comes to us from our fathers and mothers, 
so I will tell you what mine have told me about the taverns of one and two 
hundred years ago.  
   Tavern then and tavern now seem quite different.  Now it savors of the bar, 
while then tavern meant accomodation, rest for man and horse, good food and 
drink, hospitality and conversation with the best minds and brightest men of 
the day.
   I can mention five taverns of note, while I presume there must have been 
several others at different times in the town about which we do not know, 
Saxton's at Anguilla, Frink's at Taugwonk, Collins' at the Road, Brand's at 
Pawcatuck and Williams' at Mystic or Old Mystic now.
   The first one in point of style was Saxton's at Anguilla, situated nearly 
opposite where the new quarry was opened a few years ago.  You will notice now 
as you drive by, going to Westerly, on the south side of the road, an old piece 
of double-faced wall, which was where the tavern or Ordinary stood, and it was 
considered by Madame Knight, who kept a journal on her horseback trip from 
Boston to New York, as the best tavern on the whole route when she stopped 
there October 5th, 1704.  The keeper of this Ordinary was Capt. Joseph Sexton, 
the son of Thomas and Ann Copp Atwood Sexton, of Boston, where he was born in 
1656.  He later came to Stonington, settled here and was engaged in the West 
India trade and became quite well to do; he married at 24, Hannah Denison, the 
widow of Nathaniel Chesebrough, who lived opposite the present Phelps place.  
She was 13 years older than himself.  At the time that Madame Knight stopped 
there he was 48 years old and we can imagine him resplendent in knee pants, 
silver buckles, powdered wig and broad hat dispensing hospitality with the rye 
and brown bread, baked beans and good old unadulterated West India rum.  I had 
hoped to find Madame Knight's book in the Westerly library, so that we might 
know all that she said regarding this tavern, but it is ot there, only a short 
description which relates more particularly to Pawcatuck and crossing the river 
there before she starts for Capt. Saxton;\'s in Stonington.
     The Frink tavern stood just south of the present home of Miss Caroline 
Wheeler.  The site is now called the old Frink garden, a small lot near the 
roadside, on the left hand as you drive to North Stonington.  It was a large, 
red two story house, with a projecting roof, over the front door, on either 
side of which was a large room, where people met and talked over the business 
and political affairs of the day.
   This tavern was built in 1714 by Samuel Frink, who married Margaret Wheeler, 
on land given them by her parents Isaac and Madame Mary Shephard Wheeler.  This 
Madame Shephard was born in Lynn, Mass., in 1679, daughter of Rev. Jeremiah, 
first pastor of Lynn, and granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Shephard, first pastor 
at Cambridge, whose wife was Maragret Borodel, sister of Lady Ann, wife of our 
Capt. George Denison.  I mention this to show that the best families of the 
town were represented among the tavern keepers.  
   It is interesting to know that Margaret Frink's mother, Madame Mary, kept a 
store, which stood a little north of her son-in-law's tavern; this spot is also 
marked by a short piece of double-wall.
   She bought all the surplus products of the farmers, carried on business in 
Boston and the West Indies, exchanging these goods for necessary articles for 
the farmers here, she made horseback trips to Boston where she bought her dry 
goods, and one can imagine that there was no little excitement among the women 
of the neighborhood when she returned from one of these trips and they gathered 
to look over her dry goods, consisting of French calicoes, camlets and copy 
plate, while sometimes a silk or rich brocaded satin would be among them.  
These two public buildings being so near together made quite a busy center for 
the towns people.  Over the mantel at the Frink tavern could be read these 
lines:
   Our life is nothing but a winter's day,
   Some only break their fast and then away,
   Others stay to dinner and depart full fed,
   The deepest age but sups and goes to bed,
   He most in debt who lingers out the day,
   Who dies betimes has less and less to pay.

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