Robert Douthat’s Bill to Thomas Jefferson for Food and Lodging, 21 September 1815
VI. Robert Douthat’s Bill for Food and Lodging
2 dietts | 37½ | $0.75 |
1 Lodging | .12½ | |
2 Horses | .50 | |
10 Galls oats | 12½ | 1.25 |
$3.12½ |
R. Douthat
MS (MHi); written on a scrap in Douthat’s hand; endorsed by TJ: “Tavern bills. 1815.”
Robert Douthat (ca. 1757–1818), innkeeper, merchant, and farmer, emigrated from his native Ireland to the United States in 1784 and eventually acquired land near Staunton. In 1787 he was granted a merchant’s license in Augusta County, and by 1790 he was a county justice of the peace. Douthat was postmaster of Staunton, 1792–94. He also served as a major in the militia. By 1810 Douthat was living in Rockbridge County, where he operated a tavern near Natural Bridge. As of 1812 he was still a British citizen. At the time of his death Douthat owned a personal estate valued at $2,780.63 (Lyman Chalkley, Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia [1912–13], 1:248, 252, 253, 481, 523; , 5:414, 6:51; , 16; Alexandria Advertiser, 27 Nov. 1798; DNA: RG 29, CS, Rockbridge Co., 1810; U.S. Marshal’s Returns of Enemy Aliens, DNA: RG 59, PW1812; Rockbridge Co. Will Book, 4:383–6).
On 20 Sept. 1815 TJ recorded payment to Douthat of $3.37½ for “lodgg. &c.” (
, 2:1314).Index Entries
- Douthat, Robert; identified search
- Douthat, Robert; innkeeper near Natural Bridge search
- food; tavern charges for search
- horses; tavern charges for search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; bill from R. Douthat search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Travels; tavern bills search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Travels; to Natural Bridge search
- Natural Bridge, Va.; TJ visits search
- taverns; bills from search