Free previewStop 6 of Colonial Williamsburg Walking Tour: Duke of Gloucester Street
Where the Burgesses Went Next Door
You're on Duke of Gloucester Street, close to the Capitol end of town, outside the long white clapboard building with the dormer windows. Look just above the front door. That small figure is a bust of Sir Walter Raleigh, the Elizabethan adventurer the tavern was named for. He has watched this doorway through a great deal of trouble.
The Raleigh was established around 1717, and it became a mainstay of Duke of Gloucester Street, a public house that served as far more than a place to drink. It was, as one account puts it, the stage for much of Virginia's revolutionary drama. When the House of Burgesses, Virginia's elected assembly, was in session just up the street, the Raleigh was close at hand.
That mattered in May of 1769. The burgesses had passed resolutions against British taxation. The royal governor, Lord Botetourt, responded by dissolving the assembly.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 6 of Colonial Williamsburg Walking Tour: Duke of Gloucester Street (2 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
