832
 

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
 

CHAPTER   LIII.
 

OLD   TAVERNS.
 

First license on the Delaware.—Claimed early attention.—How license was procured.
—Liquors good for sick or well.—First landlord.—New England rum,—Crown
inn.—Thomas Brock.—Samuel Beakes keeps a disorderly house.—John Ward
fined.—Taverns in 1730.—The Anchor.—Cross keys.—Friends discouraged use
of rum.—William Biles sells rum to Indians.—Hum at vendues.—Licenses in
1744.—Harrow tavern.—Craig's tavern.—Red lion.—Brick hotel, Newtown.—
Keichline's tavern.—Distinguished visitors.—Joseph Bonaparte.—Mrs. Keich-
line.—Public houses at Bristol.—The Plough.—The Buck and the Bear.—
Tavern at Centreville.—Sellers' tavern.—Beans' tavern.
 

Spirituous liquors w-ere sold along the Delaware as soon as the
wdiite man show^ed his face upon its banks, for strong drink invari¬
ably w^aits upon him in the wdlderness. The earliest record on the
subject goes back to 1671, when Captain John Carre, the English
governor of the w^est bank of the river, licensed persons both to sell
and distill spirituous liquors.

One of the first subjects that claimed the attention of the county
authorities w-as that of license, places to sell liquor being considered
a prime necessity. At that day and down to nearly the close of the
last century, the applicant for license had to be recommended hy
the court, to the governor, and if approved was duly commissioned.
As there was but little traveling abroad, public houses were chiefly
supported by the community around them. Strong liquors were
then in universal use by all classes, and it had not yet entered the
minds of any considerable number that its use as a beverage was an