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Mary Travers: The Landlady Who Took On Newfoundland’s First Government

Historical view of St. John's Harbour in the nineteenth century
St. John’s in the early nineteenth century, around the time representative government began in Newfoundland. Image courtesy of Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative.

St. John’s became the home of Newfoundland’s elected government before it had a government building to put it in.

In 1832, after years of campaigning for political reform, Newfoundland was granted representative government. The colony remained under British rule, but eligible voters could now elect members to a House of Assembly. Fifteen representatives were chosen from districts around the island.

The Colonial Building would not open until 1850, and the courthouse in St. John’s was considered too small. When the new Assembly prepared to meet in January 1833, it needed rooms, furniture, heat, light and staff.

The solution was not a public building at all. It was Mrs. Travers’s Hotel, a St. John’s tavern and lodging house operated by Mary Travers.

The elected members met downstairs. The appointed Legislative Council gathered above them. Travers supplied the rooms and much of what was needed to keep the new legislature functioning.

Then getting paid became a battle of its own.

Mary Travers and Her St. John’s Hotel

Mary Widdicombe Travers was born in St. John’s around 1783. Her father, John Widdicombe, operated the Rose and Crown tavern, so the hospitality business was familiar territory.

By 1831, Mary was running her own establishment. Contemporary advertisements called it Mrs. Travers’s Hotel. The modest, two-storey wooden building had stables and was already used for dinners, meetings and public gatherings. The Sons of Erin held a St. Patrick’s Day dinner there in 1832.

The hotel also became part of Newfoundland’s first general election. It served as the polling place for St. John’s, with candidates addressing voters outside and ballots cast aloud inside. Secret ballots were still decades away. Each voter announced his choice in front of those assembled.

That made the hotel a practical temporary home for the legislature after the election. It was known, centrally located and large enough to accommodate both parts of the new government.

A Legislature Without a Legislature Building

Beginning in January 1833, the work of government took place inside a business that normally served travellers, diners and local organizations.

Travers did more than hand over a room. She provided furniture, coal, firewood, candles and additional servants. While the Assembly occupied the hotel, parts of her regular business could not operate as usual.

The arrangement says something about St. John’s at the time. It was the political and commercial centre of the colony, but many of the institutions now associated with a capital city had not yet been built. The new government had authority on paper before it had a permanent physical home.

Mrs. Travers’s Hotel filled that gap. Unfortunately for its owner, the financial arrangements were considerably less organized than the political ambitions.

Mary Travers Was Left With the Bill

Travers sought payment for the rent, supplies and additional work required by the government. What followed was not one forgotten invoice but a long dispute involving petitions, rejected accounts and repeated attempts to recover what she believed she was owed.

Eventually, she refused the legislators access to the hotel and kept possession of government property left inside. This was more than a handful of chairs. The rooms contained desks filled with books and papers, official furniture, the Sergeant-at-Arms’ hat and the ceremonial mace of the House of Assembly.

The mace represented the authority of the legislature and was required when the House was formally in session. Officials demanded the return of the property, but Travers would not release it without an agreement over payment.

Newfoundland’s new elected government had found itself locked out of its first home by its St. John’s landlady.

The Speaker’s Chair Goes Up for Sale

In June 1834, Travers advertised an auction of the former House of Assembly’s furniture. The notice listed a large desk containing books and papers, a smaller desk used by the Speaker, the Speaker’s chair, another large chair, tables and a cocked hat described as being of good quality but already a little shabby.

Mary Travers advertisement selling House of Assembly furniture in 1834
Mary Travers advertised the former House of Assembly furniture for sale in June 1834. The newspaper printed her surname as “Traverse.” The Newfoundland Patriot, courtesy of Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative.

The sale planned for June 11 was postponed, but the dispute did not end there. Later that month, The Newfoundland Patriot reported that the government’s property had been sold for £20. The items were eventually recovered, but Travers’s larger claim remained unsettled.

The advertisement survives in Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative. It is the detail that keeps the story from sounding like something added generations later for effect. The Speaker’s chair really was offered for sale, along with the government’s papers and that slightly shabby hat.

Did Mary Travers Ever Get Paid?

Governor Thomas Cochrane ordered payments covering rent and expenses such as servants, fuel, candles and furniture. The Treasury rejected the accounts, and Cochrane later directed that they be paid from another government fund.

That still did not bring the matter to a clear end.

Travers continued petitioning for money she believed remained outstanding. Her claim followed her even after she left Newfoundland and moved with her family to Prince Edward Island.

In 1851, almost two decades after the first Assembly met in her hotel, another petition was presented on her behalf. She argued that government papers and furniture had occupied her building for months and prevented her from using it normally.

Mary Travers died in Prince Edward Island in February 1854. That April, a final petition concerning the claim was read in the Newfoundland House of Assembly. No clear record has been found showing that her family received the full amount she had sought.

What Happened to Mrs. Travers’s Hotel?

Mrs. Travers’s Hotel continued operating after the legislature moved elsewhere. It survived the argument with the Assembly, but it did not survive the Great Fire of 1846.

The fire destroyed a large part of St. John’s, including the two-storey wooden building where Newfoundland’s first elected representatives had met.

Later historical accounts place the hotel near the present-day National War Memorial and refer to the area as King’s Place. The 1834 newspaper advertisement gives the address as King Street. The building is gone, and its exact footprint has not been firmly identified.

National War Memorial area in downtown St. John's near the former site of Mrs. Travers's Hotel
Mrs. Travers’s Hotel stood in this part of downtown St. John’s, near the present-day National War Memorial. Its exact footprint has not been firmly identified.

St. John’s First Home of Elected Government

The Colonial Building eventually gave Newfoundland’s legislature the formal home expected of a government. Its first home tells us more about the city in which that government began.

Early nineteenth-century St. John’s was growing faster than its public institutions. When representative government arrived, the town adapted an existing local business because no purpose-built legislature was waiting.

Mary Travers was not a politician. She could not vote in the election that created the Assembly, and she held no official position within it. Still, her hotel made the first sitting possible, and her refusal to quietly carry the government’s unpaid costs made her part of its early history.

Before Newfoundland’s elected representatives sat beneath the columns of the Colonial Building, they met above tables, stables and the everyday business of a St. John’s hotel. Then they learned that their landlady expected to be paid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where did Newfoundland’s first House of Assembly meet?

It first met in January 1833 at Mrs. Travers’s Hotel in St. John’s. The elected Assembly met downstairs and the appointed Legislative Council met upstairs.

What was Mary Travers’s tavern called?

Contemporary notices referred to it as Mrs. Travers’s Hotel. It should not be confused with the Rose and Crown tavern operated by her father, John Widdicombe.

Why did Mary Travers keep the government’s property?

She was trying to recover money connected with the legislature’s use of her hotel, including rent, servants, fuel, candles and furniture.

What happened to Mrs. Travers’s Hotel?

The wooden building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1846. Historical accounts place it near the present-day National War Memorial, but its exact footprint has not been firmly identified.

Sources and Further Reading

Continue exploring: Read how nearby Water Street grew from a harbourfront path into the street that built St. John’s.

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Location: St. John's, NL, Canada

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