The eighth installment (paragraph) of the Sesqui-Centennial Address of Sussex County given by Justice Francis J. Swayze on 2 Sep 1903 and printed by the Sussex Independent newspaper.... {Okay, so installment seven was back in June - you can read the others by searching on "Swayze" on the NJSussex mailing list archives page http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl } The statue gives us an indication of the manners and customs of the times, in a section which recites the too free use of liquor by persons working on the road is of mischievious consequence, and enacts that if the overseer or any person working on the road, or with them as a spectator, shall ask of any traveler money, drink or other reward, or shall by any contrivance extort or receive anything from any traveler, he shall be liable to a penalty. As travel increased, taverns became necessary, and within six years after the county seat was fixed at Newton a tract of land three-tenths of an acre, at the northwest corner of the Green, part of what is now (1903) occupied by Judge Houston's office, was converted by Jonathan Hampton to Martin Delaney, evidently for a tavern, and a public house was kept on that spot until within the last 50 years. A few years later the owner described in a deed as an innkeeper, and in 1778 it was conveyed to Jonathan Willis who kept a tavern in Newtown in 1781 when, The Marquis de Chastellux, Then on Rochambeau's staff, passed through the county on his way to Philadelphia. The account of the Marquis gives us an interesting view of the customs of that early time. He found his room at the tavern too cold to be comfortable, and spent the evening in the parlor, where a crowd had gathered to drink grog. He complains that one of them, whom he names, smelled horribly. I am afraid that the custom described by the Marquis was in existence before the year 1781 and I do not feel sure it has altogether gone out of fashion in 1903 (of not bathing?) In those early days the most prominent man in the community was likely to be the tavern-keeper. He was in a public business; he came into contact with many persons, and he was in a position to make friends who might prove servicable when he desired an office, whether by vote of the people or by appointment by the Governor. Out early sheriffs and judges were many of them tavern-keepers, and in the later days a story is told of a clergyman who added to his salary as a minister of the gospel the profits derived from keeping a public house. Hmmm, Cathy DiPietro