Naming The Inn  Named in honor of an unusual Newport woman of the Colonial era, Abigail Stoneman was Newport's first woman Inn owner and a remarkably ambitious and versatile business person for her day -- at a time when women had very limited rights and few business opportunities.

A Matter Of Connections   Abigail Stoneman was a colonial woman. The Abigail Stoneman Inn occupies a Victorian house. What is the connection? Abigail Stoneman made her reputation as Newport's first known woman entrepreneur in the the 1760's and early 1770's, before the American Revolutionary War.

100 Years later, George Champlin Mason, the famous Newport architect of the 19th century and the designer of the 1866 house that now bears her name, wrote a book about the history of Newport architecture. The book included sections on Newport commercial architecture as well as houses. One section was devoted to the elegance and artistic imagination used in Colonial Newport commercial sign design.

A part of one of the chapters described the unusual (for her time) commercial and entrepreneurial vision exhibited by Abigail Stoneman a hundred years earlier, two of which were in buildings only three blocks from the Abigail Stoneman Inn. Mason cited her not only as a creator of new enterprises but also for the originality and cleverness of the signs she erected to attract the attention of potential customers. Hence, we find a lovely artistic connection that brings together in the Abigail Stoneman Inn, two prominent Newporters who lived a century apart.

Who Was Abigail Stoneman  Abigail was a woman who lived a remarkable life in Colonial Newport.  Amazingly, in the bustling, rough and tough, male-dominated, port city of her time, she thrived as Newport's first woman entrepreneur before the Revolutionary War.  She is described as having been a young and attractive widow who in the 1760's opened two lodging inns, a tearoom, a coffeehouse, two shops and a social event venue. Her life and some of her newspaper ads are the design theme for the Tea And Sympathy State Room.

Here are some actual advertisements that were written and placed in the Newport Mercury newspaper related to activities involving her businesses:

Abigail's Place In History  Abigail's precocious entrepreneurial determination - two centuries before the dawn of the "women's liberation" - is still remembered in the feminist world to this day. In late 2001, author Vicky Leon released "Uppity Women of the New World," that listed 50 ideas, from seriously symbolic to impertinent, to celebrate women in history. Item number 4 was none other than Abigail Stoneman.

" Have a latte on Abigail. When you make your daily stop at your favorite java joint, toast Abigail Stoneman, Boston's first coffeehouse entrepreneur, who in 1770 set up a coffeehouse on the site of the Boston Massacre."

Abigail Stoneman really did get around, considering the times and the limited status and mobility of women. In addition to her Newport Inns, teahouse, coffeehouse, shops and social hall - and her Boston coffeehouse, she also opened a coffeehouse in New York very near the site of what was later to become the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

Editor's Note  After considerable research, the Legendary Inns of Newport group has been unable to locate an actual painting or drawing of Abigail Stoneman, who lived long before the invention of photography. We will continue the search and hope that anyone who has any additional information on this subject will contact us: Innkeeper, Legendary Inns of Newport, 2 Seaview Avenue, Newport, RI 02840. 800-845-1811. Email

In order to give Abigail Stoneman at least a temporary physical identity, the owners of the Legendary Inns have made available a painting from their own private collection to serve the purpose. It is an American colonial-era oil painting of one of their own ancestors painted in 1743 by Bass Otis, who was America's first lithographer, an artist, and one of Benjamin Franklin's closest friends.