Tun Tavern: The Philadelphia Tavern Where the Marines Began, November 10, 1775

Tun Tavern was a waterfront tavern and brew house in Philadelphia, and Marine tradition holds it as the place where the first Marines were recruited after the Continental Congress resolved, on November 10, 1775, “That two Battalions of marines be raised.” The resolution is on the record; the recruiting at the Tun is tradition. Here is what the documents show, what the stories add, and why a tavern that burned in 1781 still carries weight every November.

The Resolution of November 10, 1775

By the autumn of 1775 Congress was building a war at sea. On October 13 it resolved to create a navy, and a seven-member Naval Committee, John Adams among them, went to work on ships, officers and men. Congress was also weighing a stroke against Nova Scotia, the main British reinforcement and supply point in North America, according to the American Battlefield Trust.

On November 10, 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution drafted by John Adams. It opens: “Resolved, That two Battalions of marines be raised, consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments.” It then set the standard for every man who would join. No one was to be appointed or enlisted “but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required.”

That clause matters for the Tun Tavern story: Congress wanted men who knew ships, and the Tun stood by the docks.

The Tun: A Brew House on the Waterfront

Tun Tavern stood at the corner of King Street (later Water Street) and Tun Alley, in the Philadelphia waterfront district. Joshua Carpenter built it in the 1680s; the National Museum of the Marine Corps gives 1685, and other accounts give 1686. It is remembered as the city’s first brew house; a tun is the Old English word for a barrel or keg of beer.

In the 1740s a restaurant name was added: “Peggy Mullan’s Red Hot Beef Steak Club.” The National Museum of the Marine Corps counts the Tun among the largest establishments in the waterfront district. Charitable societies such as St. George’s and St. Andrew’s met there. In 1756 Benjamin Franklin used the inn to recruit and gather the Pennsylvania militia. Washington, Franklin and Jefferson knew it as a meeting place, and members of the Naval Committee met there on naval affairs.

The Men: Samuel Nicholas and Robert Mullan

Samuel Nicholas was a Philadelphia innkeeper in his own right and a former Quaker. He kept the Conestoga Wagon tavern and helped found the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club. Nicholas was the first officer commissioned in the Continental Marines, as a captain, and he later rose to major. Tradition counts him the first Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Robert Mullan kept the Tun. Accounts call him Peggy Mullan’s son, and Marine history remembers him as the chief Marine recruiter. The sources disagree on his rank: the National Museum of the Marine Corps calls him a captain of Marines, another account dates his captain’s commission to June 1776, and the American Battlefield Trust says he was commissioned a first lieutenant.

Record and Tradition: Where Did the Recruiting Happen?

Here the honest line has to be drawn. The resolution of November 10, 1775 is documented. That the first Marines were enlisted inside Tun Tavern is tradition. The historian Edwin Simmons surmised that the first recruiting post was more likely the Conestoga Waggon, the Nicholas family’s own tavern.

The National Museum of the Marine Corps has weighed the question in a short paper titled “Tale of Two Taverns.” Its answer is probably both. Officer ranks were assigned at the Conestoga Wagon; enlisted men were recruited at the Tun, the obvious choice because it sat in the waterfront district where the “good seamen” Congress asked for could be found, and because Mullan ran it.

From the Waterfront to New Providence

The men raised in Philadelphia went to sea quickly. Nicholas and his Marines sailed with Commodore Esek Hopkins aboard the flagship Alfred, and on March 3, 1776, Nicholas led 234 Marines ashore at New Providence in the Bahamas, the first amphibious landing of the Continental Marines. In January 1777 they fought at Princeton.

When the war ended in 1783 the Continental Marines were disbanded. On July 11, 1798, President John Adams, the same man who drafted the 1775 resolution, signed the act that created the United States Marine Corps. For years afterward the Corps marked its birthday on July 11.

Tun Tavern did not see the peace. It burned in 1781. Its site now lies under Interstate 95 where it passes Penn’s Landing, and a marker on Front Street tells passers-by what once stood there.

How November 10 Became the Birthday

In 1921 Major Edwin McClellan recommended that November 10 be kept as the Marine Corps birthday. On November 1, 1921, Major General Commandant John A. Lejeune issued Marine Corps Order No. 47, to be read to every command on November 10 of every year. It begins: “On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of Continental Congress.” It gives the reason: “it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the birthday of our corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history.” And it closes on an inheritance: “So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will be found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past.” Counting from 1775, November 10, 2026 marks the 251st anniversary of that resolution.

Why Men Wear Tun Tavern

The Tun is not a slogan. It is a real address tied to a real promise: a new country asked for men who could serve “to advantage by sea when required,” and the first of them signed on before anyone knew how the war would end. That is the heritage worth wearing.

For a man who lives for God and Country, the story is a plain lesson in keeping one’s word at real cost, at sea or at home. Wearing the name of a waterfront tavern is a quiet way of honoring the men who answered first and every man who has answered since. It is the same spirit we wrote about in Who Were the Sons of Liberty, and the same sea war that gave us John Paul Jones and “I have not yet begun to fight”.

This is a history shirt, not an official or licensed product of any armed service, and it carries no service emblem. It names a place and a date.

Wear the Standard

Our Tun Tavern — Philadelphia, November 10, 1775 tee carries the tavern and the date. It is American-made: the shirt is a Bayside 5100, made in the USA, 100% cotton, 6.1 oz heavyweight, and printed to order in the USA, so allow about two weeks from order to door. Sizes S–XL are $44.99, 2XL $48.99 and 3XL $49.99. Find it with the rest of our American Revolution shirts.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Tun Tavern?

A brew house built in the 1680s on the Philadelphia waterfront, named for the Old English tun, a barrel or keg of beer. Marine tradition holds it as the place where the first Marines were recruited in 1775. It burned in 1781.

Were the Marines really founded at Tun Tavern?

The resolution of November 10, 1775 is documented; recruiting at the Tun is tradition. The National Museum of the Marine Corps concludes it was probably both taverns: officers organized at Samuel Nicholas’s Conestoga Wagon, enlisted men recruited at the Tun.

Who were Samuel Nicholas and Robert Mullan?

Nicholas, a Philadelphia innkeeper, was the first officer commissioned in the Continental Marines. Mullan kept Tun Tavern and is remembered as the chief Marine recruiter, though sources differ on his rank.

Why is the Marine Corps birthday November 10?

Because the Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions of Marines that day in 1775. The Corps long kept July 11, the date of the 1798 act, until Major General Lejeune’s Order No. 47 of November 1, 1921 directed that November 10 be honored every year.

Does Tun Tavern still exist?

No. It burned in 1781; its site lies under Interstate 95 at Penn’s Landing, marked on Front Street.

Sources

• American Battlefield Trust, “Resolved, That two Battalions of marines be raised”
• Museum of the Marine, “From Continental to U.S. Marines”
• National Museum of the Marine Corps, “Tale of Two Taverns”
• Marine Corps Order No. 47 (Series 1921), text via Small Wars Journal
• Task & Purpose, “When is the Marine Corps birthday?”
• Emerging Revolutionary War Era, “Congress Creates the Marine Corps, November 10, 1775”
• Military.com, “What Happened to the Original Tun Tavern”
• Wikipedia, “Tun Tavern”
• Wikipedia, “Continental Marines”
• Wikipedia, “Samuel Nicholas”