Let’s Meet for a Pint at the Death of the Fox Inn

A morbid meeting place at first blush, but this historic tavern in Mount Royal, New Jersey, built around 1727, came by its name in the course of honest business—providing drink and sustenance to members of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club after their hunts.

Founded in 1766 by a group of Philadelphia gentlemen, the Gloucester Foxhunting Club was the first organized hunt in the New World. The club was named for Gloucester County in New Jersey, directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The club flourished from 1766 to 1818, and presumably so did the Death of the Fox Inn.

During the Revolutionary War, according to Kelly Roncace in her article in the Gloucester County Times, the inn was used as a recruiting center and military headquarters. Some of the more grisly history of the inn is associated with the hanging of a Tory from a walnut tree nearby. Today, it is a privately owned home with six fireplaces, wide floorboards, and some of the original doors and hardware.