Few small towns and villages had trained doctors available to care for the sick, so many colonial women learned to make medicines from plants grown in their kitchen gardens. They also acted as nurses for their own and neighboring families. We know that the court awarded the Pierpoints 2,000 pounds of tobacco as payment for taking care of a neighbor, Jane Brown, when she fell ill. Historians refer to “social medicine” when talking about the large role that colonial women played in community health care.

Ordinaries Served the Community

Throughout the day travelers arrived at the ordinary. The children helped their mother serve food and drinks to their guests and ferry passengers. During that time in colonial London Town, many homes did not have ovens, so the townspeople brought their flour for baking to ordinary owners, like Mehitable; consequently the ordinary was a bakery as well.

 

 

Families who owned ordinaries often provided another essential community service: They were paid by the county court to help the sick and those unable to care for themselves.