The Bush Declaration
The 1st Declaration of Independence
By James Schiaffino

    Taverns were located about 12 miles apart, the average distance a stagecoach could travel at that time. The Taverns provided rest and food for the weary horses and travelers. Taverns provided hearty meals on a strict time schedule. Breakfast usually consisted of grits, cakes of unleavened dough baked on bakestones or circular griddles that went by names such as “clapbread”, “griddle cakes” and “pancakes”. Additionally, whatever vegetables and meats that were leftover from the previous evening were served as accompaniment.

    For the hearty dinner venison, mutton, pork and chicken were popular as were tripe, turnips, onions, cabbage, carrots, and parsnips, along with pulses and legumes. These were mixed together in a kind of porridge and served in a wooden bowl with a wooden spoon.

    Following their repast the travelers could imbibe the tavern’s offerings: beer, and cider with breakfast; rum and wine with dinner; claret, ratafias, creams, punches, and other concoctions in the evening. Water was not considered suitable for consumption at that time.

    Following the meal, travelers could sit by the fire and pass the time listening to local news or entertain themselves with card games like whist and cribbage. Then they would retire to a dormitory style room where they slept two to a bed.

    In an age without telephone, TV or the internet, taverns were the places to congregate and catch up on the local news, gossip and foreign events like what was happening in far away and exotic places like Baltimore or Philadelphia. In the 17th and 18th centuries mail was delivered to the local tavern (there were no ‘Post Offices’) as the tavern was the social and business center of any town. It was the logical place to gather and discuss politics, in this case whether or not to leave the British Empire.

    The Tavern has a second claim to fame. From 10-11 September, it served as a temporary headquarters for Comte de Rochambeau as he bivouacked his army on their march south with Washington on their way to Yorktown.

    Today the tavern is the professional office of a doctor who appropriately enough is a dedicated student of Revolutionary War History. The office is filled with all manner of memorabilia, most donated by his patients. The University of Maryland did an archeological dig of the grounds of Bush Tavern. They discovered foundations of the kitchen, a well and foundations for several storage buildings in addition to hundreds of period artifacts.

    There are two Historical markers outside the Tavern today. One is dedicated to the Bush Declaration. The other signifies the Tavern as a stop on the Rochambeau Trail.

Sources:
The Harford County Historical Society
The University of Maryland
Harford’s Heart Magazine
My Maryland
The Founding of Maryland


The signers were as follows:
Charles Anderson (1734–1824, Green Co., PA)
John Archer (1741–1810, Harford Co., MD)
William Bradford, Sr. (1739–1794)
Thomas Brice (1746-?)
Samuel Calwell (c1741– 1799, Harford Co., MD)
Richard Dallam (1743–1805, Harford Co., MD)
John Donahuy (or Donahey)
Greenberry Dorsey (1728–by 1798 Harford Co., MD)
John Durham (1737–1801, Harford Co., MD)
William Fisher, Jr. (1740–1835, Harford Co., MD)
Aquila Hall (1727–1779, Harford Co., MD)
Aquila Hall, Jr. (c.1750–1815, Baltimore Co., MD)
Josias Carvil Hall (1746–1814, Harford Co., MD)
James Harris (d. 1777, Harford Co., MD)
Francis Holland (1745–d. by 1775, Harford Co., MD)
Thomas Johnson (b.1726)
Robert Lemmon (1740, Ire.–1817, Somerset Co., MD)
James Lytle (1752–1809, Harford Co., MD)
James McComas (1735–1791, Harford Co., MD)
Robert Morgan (b. 1755)
William Morgan (1743–1795, Harford Co., MD)
Benjamin Bradford Norris (1745–1790)
Aquila Paca (1738–1788, Harford Co., MD)
John Patrick (1742–d. bef.1805, Baltimore Co., MD)
George Patterson (1748–1808, Harford Co., MD)
Edward Prall (1734–1803, Harford Co., MD)
Alexander Rigdon (1743–1820, Harford Co, MD)
Daniel Scott (1747–1828, Harford Co., MD)
William Smith (c.1720–1777, Harford Co., MD)
William Smithson (1745–1809, Air, Harford Co., MD)
John Taylor (1736–d. aft. 1775)
Edward Ward (1709–1791, Harford Co, MD)
William Webb (1732–1778, Harford Co., MD)
Abraham Whitaker (1737–1784, Harford Co., MD)





Close this window

Last Modified: 06/26/2019 – 1516 hours PST");