Owners of public houses used any available help they could afford. No evidence, at this point, indicates that the Holland Pierpoint family had the benefit of indentured servants, slaves, convict servants, orphans, or other outside help. Instead, Mehitable would have relied on her children, young Mehitable, Thomas, James, and Larkin, aged 13, 12, 9, and 6. They were essential to the success of the family business.

 

Travelers needing a place to stay would use ordinaries and taverns. Imagine, as you read along, what it might have been like as a child growing up in an ordinary, to have complete strangers in your house every night.