Garrett Van Sweringen ran a unique establishment. In Maryland, public inns were known as ordinaries. They had their prices for lodging, food, and drink fixed by law. They were open to all customers, and ordinary keepers could not choose who stayed with them. By opening a private inn or lodging house, Van Sweringen escaped many of these regulations and could select who lodged with him.
Van Sweringen appealed to wealthier customers who could pay more for better services. These ranged from Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore, and royal governors to elite planters but he could not escape one innkeeper's headache. In the tobacco economy, people typically paid with an IOU called a tobacco note, not cash. Van Sweringen, like all innkeepers, was forced to spend much time going to court to collect debts owed him.
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Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore, was a patron of Van Sweringen's private inn and often held meetings of his council here.
Very little hard currency was available in early Maryland. Instead, colonists relied primarily on a credit system using promissory notes for later payment in tobacco. The issuer of the note was indebted to whoever held it for a given weight of tobacco.
This portrait is of Sir Edmund Andros. After Sir Lionel Copley died in 1693, Virginia's Royal Governor Andros briefly acted as Maryland's governor. On his two brief visits to St. Mary's City, Andros stayed at Van Sweringen's Council Chamber and ran up an enormous bill of over 96 £ sterling. This sum was greater than the value of the entire estates of most Maryland families.
This bill was for Sir Edmond Andros and his party for one day at the Council Chamber. The amounts are listed in pounds, shillings, and pence.
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