Stay...but Beware of the Bugs!

An ordinary was first and foremost a family home. Mehitable Pierpoint and her children earned money by opening their home and own sleeping quarters to travelers who needed a place to stay. If there were more guests than available beds, the children gave up their own beds for the paying customers. In the colonial period, people shared beds, even travelers. Four strangers might sleep in one bed, with their heads and feet in opposite directions! Privacy was a luxury reserved only for the wealthy. Beds in an ordinary were not assigned to particular family members. They were part of the family business.

Beware of those beds though! Colonial-era bedding, called a bed tick, resembled a large stuffed pillowcase and was approximately three feet by five feet in size. Bedding reflected a person's social status. Wealthier adults had mattresses stuffed with feathers or wool. The poor, the enslaved, and the young slept on bed ticks that were stuffed with straw, dried cornhusks, cattails, and other grasses. Insects readily turned bedding into a home. Bedbugs and lice were transported from person to person in the colonial period, particularly since the colonists considered bathing dangerous and washed themselves every few months. Sharing beds and living in close quarters made it easy for insects to spread.