Jane Vobe

We know little about Jane Vobe’s early life. She may have been born in London in 1720.¹ We do know that she married a tavernkeeper named Thomas Vobe, who disappeared from the historical record by 1750. Whether he died or disappeared, his absence allowed Jane to keep her own tavern (also known as an “ordinary”) for decades.² In 1772, she moved her business to a prominent location on Duke of Gloucester Street. The tavern used “the Sign of The King’s Arms,” but patrons usually preferred to call it “Mrs. Vobe’s.”³

Her tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street was quite large. In 1777, a workman charged her for “Whitewashing 14 Rooms, 4 Passages, Barr & 2 poarches.”⁴ At this time, taverns were important social and political centers for the city. They hosted the many visitors who attended courts or legislative sessions in the city. Indeed, the colony’s government depended on taverns such as Jane Vobe’s to provide lodging, food, and drink for visiting Burgesses, lawyers, judges, witnesses, and defendants. Vobe’s tavern was an upscale establishment, with all the amenities that genteel clients expected. In 1765, one French traveler noted that he “got a room at mrs. vaube's tavern, where all the best people resorted.”⁵ Leading colonists like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson frequented Vobe’s tavern.⁶ They gathered in small private rooms to gamble, drink, discuss politics, and conduct business.

Like Williamsburg’s other tavernkeepers, Vobe relied on enslaved workers to serve guests, prepare food and drinks, tend the garden, manage the stables, and more. The most well-known person enslaved by Vobe was Gowan Pamphlet, an ordained preacher who founded Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church. Vobe also permitted two enslaved children, named Sal and Jack, to attend Williamsburg’s Bray School.⁷ Two enslaved children, whose mother was named Nanny, were baptized at Bruton Parish Church.⁸ While Vobe allowed the people she enslaved to seek some opportunities, there is no indication that she questioned or opposed slavery. In 1768, Vobe placed an advertisement in the Virginia Gazette seeking Nanny’s return after she escaped with “some of the comedians who have just left this town.”⁹

During the last decade of her life, Vobe contributed to the Revolutionary War effort by supplying American troops with food and drink. During the Yorktown campaign, for example, her operation supported the army of the Baron von Steuben.¹⁰ After Virginia’s capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1780, Vobe stayed behind for several years. One of only two taverns left in the town, she maintained a steady business.¹¹ But in November 1785, she advertised her property for sale.¹² The next year, she moved to Chesterfield County, Virginia, with her son and his wife, where they opened another tavern. However, she died in late 1786. Her death notice in a Maryland newspaper noted only that Vobe had, “for many years, kept a very genteel Public House at Williamsburg.”¹³ Though easily overlooked today, women like Jane Vobe maintained the institutions where revolution unfolded.