Chapter IV: Part 4

Three weeks before his petition was read in the House, Mercer became ill. On October 26, 1748, he noted in his journal, "Very ill obliged to keep my bed." This was almost his first sickness after years of apparently robust health. Such indispositions as he occasionally suffered had occurred, like this one, at Williamsburg, where conviviality and rich food caused many another colonial worthy to founder. In this case, anxiety over the outcome of his petition may have brought on or aggravated his ailment. In any event, he stayed throughout the court session at the home of Dr. Kenneth McKenzie, who treated him. On November 3 he noted that he was "On Recovery," and two days later "went out to take the air." The following appears in his account with Dr. McKenzie:

October 1748: By Medicines & Attendance myself & Ice £7.19.11
By Lodging &c 7 weeks 6. 6. 7

From William Parks, on another occasion, he bought "Rattlesnake root," which was promoted in 18th-century Virginia as a specific against the gout, smallpox, and "Pleuritick and Peripneumonic Fevers."[112] Twice he bought "British oyl," a favorite popular nostrum sold in tall, square bottles, and on another occasion "2 bottles of Daffy's Elixir."[113] In 1749 he settled his account with George Gilmer, apothecary of Williamsburg, for such things as oil of cinnamon, Holloways' Citrate, "Aqua Linnaean," rhubarb, sago, "Sal. Volat.," spirits of lavender, and gum fragac. The final item in the account was for April 22, 1750, for "a Vomit." The induced vomit, usually by a tartar emetic, was an accepted cure for overindulgence and a host of supposed ailments. That inveterate valetudinarian and amateur physician, William Byrd, was in the habit of "giving" vomits to his sick slaves.[114]

In November and December 1749 Mercer sustained his first long illness, during which he was attended by "Doctor Amson." "Taken sick" at home on November 13, he evidently did not begin to recover until December 11. Whatever improvement he may have made must have received a setback on the last day of the year, when he recorded in his journal: "Took about 60 grains of Opium & 60 grains of Euphorbium by mistake instead of a dose of rhubarb."

FOOTNOTES:

[112] Ten years earlier a vogue for rattlesnake root had been
established, apparently by those interested in promoting it.
On June 16, 1738, Benjamin Waller wrote to the editor of the
_Virginia Gazette_ extolling the virtues of rattlesnake root
in a testimonial. He claimed it cured him quickly of the
gout, and, he wrote, "I am also fully convinced this Medicine
has saved the Lives of many of my Negroes, and others in that
Disease, which rages here, and is by many called a
_Pleurisy_; And that it is a sure Cure in a Quartan Ague."
Two weeks later the _Gazette_ carried "Proposals for Printing
by Subscription a _Treatise_ on the DISEASES of _Virginia_
and the Neighbouring Colonies ... To which is annexed, An
Appendix, showing the strongest Reasons, _a priori_, that the
Seneca Rattle-Snake Root must be of more use than any
Medicine in the _Materia Medica_."

[113] See GEORGE B. GRIFFENHAGEN and JAMES HARVEY YOUNG, "Old
English Patent Medicines in America," (paper 10 in
_Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology:
Papers 1-11_, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 218, by various
authors; Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1959).

[114] _The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover,
1709-1712_, edit. Louis B. Wright and Marian Tingling.
(Richmond, Virginia: The Dietz Press, 1941), p. 188 (for
example).

RELIGION AND CHARITIES

Mercer's religious observances were irregular, although usually when he was home he attended Potomac Church. At the same time he continued as a vestryman in Overwharton Parish (which included Potomac and Aquia churches). On September 28, 1745, the vestry met to decide whether to build a new Aquia church or to repair the old one. They "then proceeded to agree with one _William Walker_, an Undertaker to build a new brick Church, Sixty Feet Square in the Clear, for One Hundred and Fifty Three Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty Pounds of Transfer Tobacco."[115] In October Mercer entered in Ledger G, under the Overwharton Parish account, "To drawing articles with Walker." In December he charged the parish with "2 bottles claret" and "To Robert Jackson for mending the Church Plate." Jackson was a Fredericksburg silversmith.[116]

The following March, the proprietors of the Accokeek Ironworks petitioned the Committee on Propositions and Grievances with an objection to the vestry's decision to rebuild, claiming that "as the said Iron-Works lie in the Parish aforesaid, and employ many Tithables in carrying on the same, they will labour under great Hardships thereby...."[117] The petition was rejected, but nothing seems to have been done on the new church until three months after Walker's death in February 1750, when Mourning Richards was appointed undertaker.[118]

Mercer's charities in this decade form a short list. His only outright gift was his "Subscription to Protestant working-Schools in Ireland. To my annual Subscription for Sterling £5.5." In 1749 he did £12 3s. worth of legal work for the College of William and Mary, which he converted into "Subscriptions to Schools" of equal value; in other words, he donated his services.

FOOTNOTES:

[115] Op. cit. (footnote 19), p. 203.

[116] _Virginia Gazette_, October 20, 1752; RALPH BARTON
CUTTEN, _The Silversmiths of Virginia_ (Richmond, 1953), pp.
39-40.

[117] Op. cit. (footnote 19), p. 199.

[118] WHIFFEN, op. cit. (footnote 94), p. 142.

CATHERINE MERCER'S DEATH AND ANN ROY'S ARRIVAL

On April 1, 1750, Mercer went to Williamsburg for the spring session and stopped en route to visit his friend Dr. Mungo Roy at Port Royal in Caroline County. He remained at Williamsburg until the seventh, except for going on the previous day to "Greenspring" to be entertained by Philip Ludwell in the Jacobean mansion built a century earlier by Governor Berkeley. Again stopping off at Port Royal, he returned home on May 10. He remained there until June 15, when he made the laconic entry in his journal: "My wife died between 3 & 4 at noon." What time this denotes is unclear.

Following this loss--Catherine Mercer was only 43--Mercer remained at home for five days, then visited his sister-in-law Mrs. Ann Mason. The next night he stayed with the pastor of Aquia Church, Mr. Moncure, then returned to Marlborough and remained there for nearly a month. Meanwhile, he purchased from Fielding Lewis, at a cost of £3 18s. 7-1/2d., "sundrys for mourning." William Thomson, the Stafford tailor, made his mourning clothes. The preparations for the funeral must have been elaborate; it was not held until July 13.

At the end of July Mercer went to Williamsburg, thence to Yorktown, and from there to Hampton and Norfolk by water on an "Antigua Ship," returning to Hampton on August 5 on a "Negro Ship," evidently having caught passage on oceangoing traders. The younger children remained in Williamsburg with George and a nurse. On September 8 he went to Port Royal and stayed "at Dr. Roy's." He returned home on the 10th, then went back to Port Royal on the 14th, staying at Dr. Roy's until the 20th, attending Sunday church services during his visit. He returned home again on the 23rd, only to visit Dr. Roy once more on the 28th. The October court session drew him to Williamsburg, where he remained until November 7. While there, he purchased the following from James Craig,[119] a jeweler:

£ s. d.

By a pair of Earrings 2 12
By a pair of Buttons 2 12
By a plain Ring 1 1 6

On November 8 he returned to Dr. Roy's. On the 10th he added a characteristically sparse note to his chronicle, "Married to Ann Roy."

The period for mourning poor Catherine was short indeed. But the mansion at Marlborough needed a mistress, and Mercer's children, a mother. A new chapter was about to open as the decade closed. From the meticulous records that Mercer kept, it has been possible to see Mercer as a dynamic cosmopolite, accomplishing an incredible amount in a few short years. His constant physical movement from place to place, his reading of the law and of even a fraction of his hundreds of books in science, literature, and the arts, his managing of four plantations, attending two monthly court sessions a year at Williamsburg, looking after the legal affairs of hundreds of clients, concerning himself with the design and construction of a remarkable house and selecting the furnishings for it--all this illustrates a personality of enormous capacity.

Marlborough was now a full-fledged plantation. Although the legacy of an earlier age still nagged at Mercer and prevented him from holding title to much of the old town, he had, nevertheless, transformed it, gracing it with the outspread grandeur of a Palladian great house.

FOOTNOTES:

[119] "James CRAIG, _Jeweller_, from LONDON Makes all sorts
Jeweller's Work, in the best Manner at his Shop in _Francis_
Street (facing the Main Street) opposite to Mr. Hall's new
Store." _Virginia Gazette_, September 25, 1746.

V

_Mercer and Marlborough, from Zenith to Decline, 1751-1768_

THE OHIO COMPANY

The long last period of Mercer's life and of the plantation he created began at a time of growing concern about the western frontier and the wilderness beyond it. In 1747 this concern had been expressed in the founding of the Ohio Company of Virginia by a group of notable colonial leaders: Thomas Cresap, Augustine Washington, George Fairfax, Lawrence Washington, Francis Thornton, and Nathaniel Chapman. George Mason was an early member, and so, not surprisingly, was John Mercer, whose prestige as a lawyer was the primary reason for his introduction to the company. We learn from the minutes of the meeting on December 3, 1750.

"[Resolved] That it is absolutely necessary to have proper Articles
to bind the Company that Mason ..., Scott & Chapman or any two of
them, apply to John Mercer to consider and draw such Articles and
desire him attend the next general meeting of the Company at
Stafford Courthouse...."[120]

At the meeting in May 1751, Mercer presented the Articles and was "admitted as a Partner on advancing his twentieth part of the whole Expence."[121] From then on he was virtually secretary of the company, as well as its chief driving force. He was made a committee member with Lawrence Washington, Nathaniel Chapman, James Scott, and George Mason, who was treasurer. The "Committee" was the central or executive board.

With the leading members living in Stafford County or nearby, most of the meetings of both the company and the committee were held at Stafford courthouse, and occasionally in private houses of the members. We can imagine with what pride Mercer noted in his journal for February 5-7, 1753, "Ohio Committee met at my house." The important role played by the Ohio Company in the Mercers' lives--and by them in the Company--is fully recounted in the _George Mercer Papers Relating to the Ohio Company of Virginia_.

FOOTNOTES:

[120] _The George Mercer Papers_, op. cit. (footnote 51), p.
5.

[121] Ibid.

GEORGE, JOHN, AND JAMES

Mercer doubtless threw himself into the Ohio Company's affairs with characteristic drive and enthusiasm. We may surmise that there was heady talk at Marlborough about the frontier and of dangerous exploits against the Indians and the French--enough, at least, to have stirred youthful cravings for adventure among the Mercer boys. Certain it is that George and John Fenton, aged 19 and 18, respectively, joined the frontier regiment of their neighbor Colonel Fry as young officers "upon the first incursions of the French."[122]

James, aged 16 and too young for soldiering, exhibited an unusual aptitude for architecture. His talent was noticed by William Bromley, the master joiner on the mansion house, who told Mercer that James "had a most extraordinary turn to mechanicks." On the strength of this, Mercer decided that James should become a master carpenter or joiner, then synonymous with "architect." In America in 1753 professional architects, as we know them, did not exist; gentlemen, some very talented, designed and drafted, while skilled joiners or carpenters followed general directions, executing, engineering, and inventing as they went along.

Mercer's decision was as unconventional as it was prescient, being made at a time when gentlemen were not expected to learn a trade, yet at a moment when the respected place the professional architect was later to have could be envisioned. Indeed, he explained his feeling that those who possessed architectural skills "were more beneficial members of society, and more likely to make a fortune, with credit, than the young Gentlemen of those times, who wore laced jackets attended for improvement at ordinaries, horse races, cock matches, and gaming tables." Motivated by this honest sense of values, forged in the experience of a self-made man, Mercer proceeded to bind James "apprentice to Mr. Waite, a master carpenter and undertaker (of Alexandria), who covenanted to instruct him in all the different branches of that business. At the same time I bound four young Negro fellows (which I had given him) to Mr. Waite, who covenanted to instruct each of them in a particular branch. These, I expected, when they were out of their time, would place him in such a situation as might enable him to provide for himself, if I should not be able to do any more for him. It is notorious that I received the compliments of the Governour, several of the Council, and many of the best Gentlemen in the country, for having set such an example, which, they said, they hoped would banish that false pride that too many of their countrymen were actuated by."

On June 25, 1753, Mercer noted in his journal, "At home. Bound son James & Peter & Essex to W^m Waite for 5 y^{rs}." However commendable this effort to banish "false pride" may have been, it was probably not a realistic solution for James' career. James, as we shall see, was to make his own choice later and was to follow with great distinction in his father's footsteps as a lawyer.

FOOTNOTES:

[122] All the foregoing quotations in this section are from
Purdie & Dixon's _Virginia Gazette_, September 26, 1766.

GROWING BURDENS, RESPONSIBILITIES, AND DEBTS

Meanwhile, Mercer had announced his intention to publish a new edition of the _Abridgment_. In doing so, he adopted a hostile, testy approach that was unusual even in 18th-century advertising. Implying that he was doing a favor to an ungrateful populace, he stated in the Virginia _Gazette_ on August 16, 1751, "I have been prevail'd upon to print it, if I have a prospect of saving myself, though the Treatment I met from the Subscribers to the last had determined me never to be again concerned in an Undertaking of this Kind." On the following February 20, he announced in the _Gazette_ that if there were 600 subscribers by the last of the next General Court he would send the copy to press. If not, he would return the money to those who had subscribed, "which I should not have troubled myself with, if I could have thought of any other Expedient to secure myself against the base Usage I met with from the Subscribers to my former _Abridgment_, who left above 1200 of them on my Hands." This kind of advertising had its predictable response: publication of the new _Abridgment_ was postponed indefinitely.

The first suggestion that all was not well in Mercer's financial affairs was given in an advertisement in the _Gazette_ on April 10, 1752. In this he noted that he had agreed to pay the debts of one Francis Wroughton, a London merchant, out of Wroughton's effects. However, although Wroughton's effects had not materialized, he promised to make payment anyway, "notwithstanding a large Ballance due to myself." He concluded, "Besides Mr. _Wroughton's_ Debts, I have some of my own (and not inconsiderable) to pay, therefore I hope that such Gentlemen as are indebted to me will, without putting me to the Blush which a Dunn will occasion, discharge their Debts...."

Perhaps to alleviate these difficulties, he had advertised in the Gazette on the previous March 15 that he would lease "3,000 Acres of extraordinary good fresh Land, in Fairfax and Prince William," but there is no evidence that he was successful.

Signs of irritability became increasingly noticeable. In 1753 he outraged his fellow justices at Stafford court--so much so that they brought charges against him before the Executive Council "for misbehavior as a Justice."[123] It was decided that, although "his Conduct had been in some Respects blameable, particularly by his Intemperance, opprobrious Language on the Bench, and indecent Treatment of the other Justices, ... that in Consideration of his having been a principal Instrument in a due Administration of Justice, and expediting the Business of the County, it has been thought proper to continue him Judge of the Court."[124]

A growing burden of debt, in contrast to the prosperity of the preceding decade, clearly affected Mercer's attitude, as we can see in a Gazette advertisement on November 7, 1754: "I will not undertake any new, or finish any old Cause, 'til I receive my Fee, or Security for it to my liking: And I hope such Gentlemen as for above these seven years past have put me off with Promises every succeeding General Court will think it reasonable now to discharge their accounts." Concurrent with indebtedness was an almost annual increase in the size of his family. In 1752 Grace Fenton Mercer was born, the next year Mungo Roy, and in 1754 Elinor.

At the same time, he still pursued the restless activity that characterized his earlier years. On July 24, 1753, Mercer went "to Balthrop's, Smith's Ordin^{ry} & Vaulx's,"[125] a distance of 27 miles, during which he "Overset." On the 25th he went on eight miles farther "to Col^o Phil Lee's"[126] for a three-day meeting of the Ohio Company, then went the whole 35 miles home on the 28th. On September 6 he was called eight miles away "to Boyd's hole on Inquest as Coroner & home by 4 in the morn^g," while the next day he was "at home. Son Mungo Roy born ab^t 2 in the morning." On the 19th Mungo Roy was christened. Four days later he went 15 miles to Fredericksburg for the christening of William Dick's son Alexander, returning home the next day. The following day Mercer journeyed 14 miles and back to "Holdbrook's Survey" by way of Mountjoy's, and repeated the trip the next day, stopping at Major Hedgman's[127] coming and going. On October 5 he made a three-day trip to Williamsburg, covering the distance in stretches of 16, 52, and 42 miles per day, respectively. He went by way of Port Royal, where he "Met M^r Wroughton," presumably the London merchant whose creditors he had agreed to pay. The second day took him by way of King William courthouse. On the return on November 4-6, he came via Chiswell's Ordinary[128] and New Kent courthouse (which he noted had "Burnt"), covering a total of 110 miles.

On June 3, 1754, his clerk reported to duty, according to a journal entry: "Rogers came here at £50 p^r annum." Rogers remained in Mercer's employ until 1768.

Mercer seems to have been driving himself to the limit, not to achieve success as in the prior decades, but rather to hold secure what he already had. The specter of debt now hung over him, as it did over nearly every planter, under the increasing burdens of the French and Indian War. The 17th-century wisdom of William Fitzhugh and Robert Beverley in seeking to lead the colony away from complete dependence upon tobacco was apparent to those who would remember. Marlborough, although still technically a town, was now in reality a tobacco plantation, and Mercer, despite his status as a lawyer, was as irretrievably committed to the success or failure of tobacco as was Fitzhugh 70 years earlier. The hard years were now upon all, and, like his equally hard-pressed debtors, Mercer was suffering from them.

FOOTNOTES:

[123] _Executive Journals of the Council_, op. cit. (footnote
66), vol. 5, p. 410.

[124] Ibid., p. 434.

[125] The Balthrop family lived in King George County;
Smith's ordinary has not been identified; "Vaulx's" probably
refers to the home of Robert Vaulx of Pope's Creek,
Westmoreland County. Vaulx was father-in-law of Lawrence
Washington and died in 1755.

[126] Philip Ludwell Lee, proprietor of "Stratford,"
Westmoreland County, 1751-1775, grandfather of General Robert
E. Lee. "Old Stratford and the Lees who Lived There,"
_Magazine of the Society of Lees of Virginia_ (Richmond, May
1925), vol. 3, no. 1, p. 15.

[127] Peter Hedgman was another Stafford County leader. He
was burgess from 1742 to 1755. "Members of the House of
Burgesses," _VHM_ (Richmond, 1901), vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 249.

[128] George Fisher visited Chiswell's ordinary: "On Monday
May the 12th 1755, at Day Break, about half an hour after
Four in the morning, I left Williamsburg to proceed to
Philadelphia.... About Eight o'clock, by a slow Pace, I
arrived at Chiswell's Ordinary. Two Planters in the Room, I
went into, were at Cards (all Fours) but on my arrival,
returned into an inner Room." "Narrative of George Fisher,"
_WMQ_ [1] (Richmond, 1909), vol. 17, pp. 164-165.

LIFE AT MARLBOROUGH DURING THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS

On March 11, 1755, after nearly 30 years of uncertainty about his titles to Marlborough, Mercer at last was granted the entire 52-acre town in a release from the feoffees, Peter Daniel and Gerard Fowke. This was made with the provision that he should be "Eased from making improvements on the other twenty-six Lots (those not built upon), to prevent their forfeiture and the County will be wholly reimbursed, which it is not probable it ever will be otherwise as only one Lot has been taken up in forty-seven years last past and there is not one House in the said town which has not been built by the said Mercer."[129]

While the day-to-day events of Marlborough went on much as ever, the conflict between the British and the French spread from Canada southward along the western ridge of the Appalachians. This expansion, inevitably, was reflected in the Mercers' activities in many ways, both great and small. As the struggle approached its climax, Braddock's troops came to Virginia in March 1755, and were quartered in Alexandria. Among them was John Mercer's brother, Captain James Mercer, who was a professional soldier. On March 25 John left Marlborough for Alexandria, probably to greet James and to have him billeted at William Waite's house where young son James already was living as Waite's apprentice. This bringing together of two far-flung members of the Mercer family had unanticipated results. Captain James was a British gentlemen-officer, untouched by the leveling influences of colonial life and therefore untempted to banish "false pride" by any such radical means as John had employed with young James. Indeed, the sight of his nephew learning a mechanical trade must have been a rude shock, for we learn from John Mercer that Captain James "found means to make his nephew uneasy under his choice; and I was from that time incessantly teazed, by those who well knew their interest over me, until I was brought to consent very reluctantly that he should quit the plumb and square" and become a lawyer.[130]

Mercer returned to Marlborough by way of George Mason's, near the place where a few months later William Buckland was to begin work on "Gunston Hall." He remained there all day on April 1--"at M^r Mason's wind bound," he wrote in his journal. The next day he went "home through a very great gust."

The problems of managing a plantation went on through peace and through war. Besides a multitude of Negroes, there were also indentured white servants at Marlborough. One of these ran away and was advertised in the _Virginia Gazette_ on May 2, 1755:

... a Servant Man named _John Clark_, he pretends sometimes to be a
Ship-Carpenter by Trade, at other Times a Sawyer or a Founder ...
he is about 5 feet 7 inches high, round Shoulders, a dark
Complexion, grey eyes, a large Nose and thick Lips, an _Englishman_
by birth; had on when he went away, a blue Duffil Frock with flat
white Metal Buttons and round Cuffs, red corded Plush Breeches, old
grey Worsted Stockings, old Shoes, and broad Pewter Buckles, brown
Linen wide Trousers, some check'd Shirts, and a Muslin Neckcloth;
had also an old Beaver Hat bound round with Linen.

On October 24, the _Gazette_ carried another advertisement related to Mercer's problems of personnel:

A Miller that understands the Management of a Wind-mill, and can
procure a proper Recommendation, may have good Wages, on applying
to the Subscriber during the General Court, at _Williamsburg_, or
afterwards, at his House in _Stafford_ County, before the last Day
of November, or if any such Person will enclose his Recommendation,
and let me know his Terms by the Post from _Williamsburg_, he may
depend on meeting an Answer at the Post-Office there, without
Charge, the first Post after his Letter comes to my Hands. _John
Mercer_

In the meanwhile, the war had broken out in full scale, and the disaster at Fort Duquesne had taken place. Mercer apparently learned the bad news at a Stafford court session, for he noted in his journal on July 9, after observing his attendance at court, "General Braddock defeated." We can imagine his concern, for both George and John Fenton were participants in the campaign.

On April 18, 1756, John Fenton was killed in action while fighting under Washington.[131] Curiously, his death was not mentioned in the journal. Instead, we learn of the death of John Mercer's horse on the way to Williamsburg in April and of the fact that, on his return in May, Mercer lost his way and traveled 46 miles in a day. He tells us that he went "to M^r Moncure's by water" on May 26, a distance of 15 miles, and that he made a round trip from Mr. Moncure's to Aquia Church for a total of 12 miles. On July 14, he noted that he went "to Maj^r Hedgman's & returning thrown out of the chaise & very much bruised."

The demands of the war are revealed in journal entries made in June 1757. On the 20th he wrote, "to Court to prick Soldiers & home," and on the 27th, "to Court to draft Soldiers & home." As at other times in the journal, birth and death, in their tragic immediacy and repetitiveness, were juxtaposed in September: on the 24th, "Son John born"; on the 27th, "Brother James died at Albany"; on the 28th, "Son John died."

In 1758 George Mason ran for the office of burgess from both Stafford and Fairfax. On July 11, Mercer went to the Stafford elections, where "Lee & Mason" were chosen. On the 15th, he went "to M^r Selden's & home by water to see M^r Mason," who evidently had come to Marlborough for a visit. Four days later, he traveled to Alexandria for the elections there and saw "Johnston & Mason" elected.

In the fall of 1758 he went, as usual, to Williamsburg. His route this time was long and devious, taking him to both Caroline and King William County courthouses on the way, for a total of 121 miles in five days. We learn of one of the hazards of protracted journeys in the 18th century from a notation repeated daily in his journal for four days following his arrival: "at Williamsburg Confined to Bed with the Piles."

On November 15, soon after his return to Marlborough, Mercer was sworn to the new commission of Stafford justices. Five days previously his son Catesby had been buried, but, as usually happened, new life came to take the place of that which had survived so briefly. On May 17, 1759, Mercer recorded, "Son John Francis born at 7 in the Evening." John Francis evidently was given an auspicious start in life by a christening of more than ordinary formality: "May 28. to Col^o Harrison's with the Gov^r Son christened."

During 1759 the second edition of the _Abridgment_ was published in Glasgow, Scotland, this time with neither public notice nor recrimination.[132] On November 25, Mercer met the growing problem of his indebtedness by deeding equal shares of some of his properties, as well as whole amounts of others, to George and James Mercer, Marlborough and a few other small holdings excepted. Fifty Negroes were included in the transaction. This action was followed immediately by the release of the properties under their new titles to Colonel John Tayloe and Colonel Presley Thornton for a year, thus providing cash by which George and James could pay £3000 of John Mercer's debts.[133]

The Ohio Company was experiencing its difficulties also. Mercer's importance in it was demonstrated by his appointment to "draw up a full State of the Company's Case setting forth the Hardships We labour under and the Reasons why the Lands have not been settled and the Fort finished according to Royal Instructions...."[134] This was his most responsible assignment during his activity in the company.

Indebtedness throughout these years lurked constantly in the background, now and then breaking through acutely. In 1760, for example, William Tooke, a London merchant, brought suit to collect £331 1s. 6d. which Mercer owed him. Two years later Capel Hanbury sued Mercer for £31 10s.[135]

In 1761 George Washington and George Mercer ran for burgesses from Frederick County in the Shenandoah Valley, and both were elected. John Mercer, evidently anxious to be present for the election, undertook the arduous journey to Winchester, leaving Marlborough on May 15. His itinerary was as follows:

May 15 to Fredericksburg 15
16 to Nevill's Ordinary 37
17 to Ashby's Combe's & Winchester 32
18 at Winchester (Frederick Election)
(Geo Washington and Geo Mercer elected)
19 to M^r Dick's Quarter 18
20 to Pike's M^r Wormley's Quarter 12
21 to Snickers's Little River Quarters & Nevill's 60
22 to Fallmouth & home 50

In the previous year Anna had been born, and now, on December 14, 1761, Maria arrived. Between the 8th and the 20th of August, 1762, entries were made that suggest that there was an epidemic of sorts at Marlborough: "Cupid died // Tom (Poll's) died // Daughter Elinor died // Miss B. Roy died." In his long letter to George, written in 1768, he reflected on the fact that, although through the years 98 Negroes had been born at Marlborough, he, at that time, had fewer than the total of all he had ever bought. "Your sister Selden," he wrote "attributes it to the unhealthiness of Patomack Neck, which there may be something in.... I thank God, however, that my own family has been generally as healthy as other people's."[136]

FOOTNOTES:

[129] John Mercer's Land Book, loc. cit. (footnote 12).

[130] Purdie & Dixon's _Virginia Gazette_, September 26,
1766.

[131] John Clement Fitzpatrick, ed., _The Writings of George
Washington_ (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1931), vol. 1, p. 318.

[132] "Journals of the Council of Virginia in Executive
Sessions, 1737-1763," _VHM_ (Richmond, 1907), vol. 14, p. 232
(footnote).

[133] _The George Mercer Papers_, op. cit. (footnote 51), p.
190.

[134] Ibid., p. 179.

[135] "Proceedings of the Virginia Committee of
Correspondence 1759-67," _VHM_ (Richmond, 1905), vol. 12, p.
4.

[136] _The George Mercer Papers_, op. cit. (footnote 51), p.
213.

THE END OF THE WAR AND THE STAMP ACT

The year 1763 marked the end of the war. It also signaled a turning point in the colonies' relations with England. In a royal proclamation the King prohibited the colonies from expanding westward past the Appalachian ridge, in effect nullifying the Ohio Company's claims and objectives. George Mercer was appointed agent of the company and was dispatched to England to plead its cause.

By this time Britain was beginning to apply the other allegedly oppressive measures which preceded the Revolution. Antismuggling laws were enforced, implemented by "writs of assistance," thus increasing colonial burdens which had been avoided previously by widespread smuggling. The South was particularly hard hit by parliamentary orders forbidding the colonies the use of paper money as legal tender for payment of debts. In a part of the world where a credit economy and chronic indebtedness made a flexible currency essential, this measure was a disastrous matter.

Despite the ominousness of the times, Mercer continued with the daily routine, the minutiae of which filled his journal. He noted on January 9, 1763, that he went to Potomac Church--"Neither Minister or clerk there." On February 21 he went a mile--probably up Potomac Creek--to watch "John Waugh's halling the Saine & home." On March 1 his merchant friend John Champe was buried. After the funeral Mercer went directly to Selden's for an Ohio Company meeting.

From December 10 until March 1765, Mercer was sick. Of this interval, he wrote George in 1768 that "My business had latterly so much encreased, together with my slowness in writing, & Rogers, tho a tolerable good clerk, was so incapable of assisting me out of the common road, that when you saw me at Williamsburg, I was reduced by my fatigue, to a very valetudinary state."[137] Indebtedness, overwork, advancing age, and the reverses of the times had evidently caused a crisis.

Passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, to raise revenues to support an army of occupation in the colonies, struck close to John Mercer, for George, while in England, had been designated stamp officer for Virginia. George returned to Williamsburg, little expecting the hostile greeting he was to receive from a crowd of angry planters. Quickly disavowing his new office, he returned the stamps the following day.

Many made the most of George's tactical blunder in accepting the stamp-officer appointment. Indeed, the Mercers seem to have been made the scapegoats for the frustrations and turmoil into which the mother country's actions had plunged the colony. George Mercer was hanged in effigy at Westmoreland courthouse, and James Mercer took to the _Gazettes_ to defend him. There were counterattacks on James while he was absent in Frederick County, and Mercer himself rushed in with a lengthy satirical diatribe entitled "Prophecy from the East." Occupying all the space normally devoted to foreign news in Purdie & Dixon's _Virginia Gazette_ for September 26, 1766, this struck out at anonymous attackers whom Mercer scathingly nicknamed Gibbet, Scandal, Pillory, and Clysterpipe. He later explained to George that James' "antagonist was backed by so many anonymous scoundrels, that I was drawn in during his abscence at the springs in Frederick to answer I did not know whom tho it since appears D^r Arthur Lee was the principal, if not the only assassin under different vizors, & he was so regardless of truth that he invented & published the most infamous lies as indisputable facts: on your brother's return I got out of the scrape but from a paper war it turned to a challenge, which produced a skirmish, in which your bro. without receiving any damage broke the Doctors head, & closed his eyes in such a manner as obliged him to keep his house sometime...."[138]

Of John Mercer's own attitude towards the Stamp Act there can be no question. On November 1, 1765, he noted in his journal, "The damned Stamp Act was to have taken place this day but was proved initially disappointed." He is said to have written a tract against the Stamp Act, although no copy has survived.

FOOTNOTES:

[137] Ibid., p. 187.

[138] Ibid.

THE CLOSING YEARS[139]

The elements of tragedy mark Mercer's final years--the tragedy of John Mercer and Marlborough interwoven with the epic failures of the colonial experiment. Prompted by his illness, he quit his legal practice in the courts in 1765. In the same year he "gave notice to the members of the Ohio Company, that my health & business would not longer allow me to concern myself in their affairs which they had entirely flung upon my hands." He also "on account of my deafness, refused to act as a justice, which I should not have done otherwise, as I have the satisfaction to know that I have done my country some service in this station."

Heavily in debt, disillusioned and embittered by the dwindling results of his struggles, he wrote that "I have attended the bar thirty-six years, through a perpetual hurry and uneasiness, and have been more truly a slave than any one I am, or ever was, master of; yet have not been able, since the first day of last January, to command ten pounds, out of near ten thousand due me." Recoiling from his situation, he desperately sought a way out and a means to recover his losses. With self-deceptive optimism he seized upon the idea of establishing a brewery at Marlborough, since "our Ordinaries abound & daily increase (for drinking will continue longer than anything but eating)." Accordingly, he built a brewhouse and a malthouse, each 100 feet long, of brick and stone, together with "Cellars, Cooper's house & all the buildings, copper & utensils whatever, used about the brewery." He depended at first on his windmill for grinding the malt, but to avoid delays on windless days, "I have now a hand-mill fixed in my brewhouse loft that will grind 50 bushels of malt (my coppers complement) every morning they brew."

To get his project under way, Mercer plunged further into the depths of debt by buying 40 Negroes "to enable me to make Grain sufficient to carry on my brewery with my own hands." These cost £8000, "a large part of which was unpaid, for payment of which I depended on the Brewery itself & the great number of Debts due to me." But the external fate which was driving him closer and closer to destruction now struck with the death of John Robinson, treasurer of the colony, who, having lent public funds promiscuously to debtor friends, had left a deficiency of £100,000 in the colonial treasury. A chain reaction of suits developed, threatening James Hunter of Fredericksburg, Mercer's security for purchase of the slaves.

The brewery lumbered and stumbled. Mercer's first brewer, a young Scot named Wales, prevailed upon him to spend £100 to alter the new malthouse. On September 16, 1765, William King, evidently a master brewer, arrived. He immediately found fault with Wales' changes in the malthouse. Within three weeks, however, King died. King's nephew, named Bailey, then came unannounced with a high recommendation as a brewer from a man he had served only as a gardener. Mercer was impressed: "You may readily believe I did not hesitate to employ Bailey on such a recommendation, more especially as he agreed with King in blaming the alteration of the malt house & besides found great fault with Wales's malting." Faced with rival claims as to which could brew better beer, Mercer allowed each to brew separately. "Yet though Bailey found as much fault with Wales's brewing as he did with his malting, that brewed by Wales was the only beer I had that Season fit to drink." Wales, however, brewed only £40 worth of beer, barely enough to pay his wages, let alone maintenance for himself and his wife. Although Bailey brewed enough to send a schooner load of it to Norfolk, it was of such "bad character" that only two casks were sold, the remainder having been stored with charges for two months, then brought back to Marlborough, where an effort to distill it failed.

In 1766 there was a similar tale. Five hundred fifty bushels of malt were produced, but much of the beer and ale was bad. In January 1766, Andrew Monroe[140] was employed as overseer. "Wales complains of my Overseer & says that he is obliged to wait for barley, coals & other things that are wanted which, if timely supplied with he could with six men & a boy manufacture 250 bushels a week which would clear £200.... My Overseer is a very good one & I believe as a planter equal to any in Virginia but you are sensible few planters are good farmers and barley is a farmer's article," Mercer wrote to George. Besides the overhead of slaves and nonproductive brewers, the establishment required the services of two coopers at £20 per year.

Purdie & Dixon's _Virginia Gazette_ for April 10, 1766, carried the advertisement of Mercer's brewery:

To be SOLD, at the MARLBOROUGH BREWERY

STRONG BEER AND PORTER at 18d. and ALE at 1s. the gallon,
_Virginia_ currency, in cask, equal in goodness to any that can be
imported from any part of the world, as nothing but the genuine
best MALT and HOPS will be used, without any mixture or substitute
whatsoever; which, if the many treaties of brewing published in
_Great Britain_ did not mention to be frequently used there, the
experience of those who have drunk those liquors imported from
thence would point out to be the case, from their pernicious
effects.

The severe treatment we have lately received from our Mother
Country, would, I should think, be sufficient to recommend my
undertaking (though I should not be able to come up to the English
standard, which I do not question constantly to do) yet, as I am
satisfied that the goodness of every commodity is its best
recommendation, I principally rely upon that for my success; and my
own interest, having expended near 8000 l. to bring my brewery to
its present state, is the best security I can give the publick to
assure them of the best usage, without which such an undertaking
cannot be supported with credit.

The casks to be paid for at the rate of 4s. for barrels, 5s. for
those between 40 and 50 gallons, and a penny the gallon for all
above 50 gallons; but if they are returned in good order, and
sweet, by having been well scalded as soon as emptied, the price of
them shall be returned or discounted.

Any person who sends bottles and corks may have them carefully
filled and corked with beer or porter at 6s. or with ale at 4s. the
dozen. I expect, in a little time, to have constant supply of
bottles and corks; and if I meet the encouragement I hope for,
propose setting up a glasshouse for making bottles, and to provide
proper vessels to deliver to such customers as favour me with their
orders such liquors as they direct, at the several landings they
desire, being determined to give all the satisfaction in the power
of

Their most humble servant,
JOHN MERCER

Foolhardy though the brewery was, a glass factory would have been the pinnacle of folly. Yet it was seriously on Mercer's mind. In his letter to George he wrote:

A Glass house to be built here must I am satisfied turn to great
profit, they have some in New England & New York or the Jerseys &
find by some resolves the New England men are determined to
increase their number.

Despite his manifest failure, Mercer confidently attempted to persuade George of the possibilities of the brewery and even the glasshouse. Shifting from one proposal to another, he suggested that he could "rent out all my houses and conveniences at a reasonable rate," or take in a partner, although "I have so great a dislike for all partnerships, nothing but my inability to carry it on my self could induce me to enter into one."

In spite of these desperate thrashings about in a struggle to survive, Mercer's empire was collapsing. When Monroe arrived as overseer, he

found [according to Mercer] but 8 barrels of corn upon my
plantation, not enough at any of my quarters to maintain my people,
a great part of my Stock dead (among them some of my English colts
& horses in the 2 last years to the am^t of £ 375. 10. --) & the
rest of them dying, which would have infallibly have been their
fate if it had not been for the straw of 1000 bushels of barley &
the grains from the brewhouse.... Convinced of his [Monroe's]
integrity, I have been forced to submit the entire management of
all the plantation to him.

The following passage from the letter summarizes Mercer's financial predicament:

"I reced in 1764 £1548 ... 4 ... 3-1/2 & in 1765 £961 ... 5 ...
4-1/2 but since I quitted my practice I reced in 1766 no more than
£108 ... 16 ... 1 of which I borrowed £24.10.--& 7 ... 1 ... 6 was
re'ced for the Governor's fees. £20 ... 8 ... 4 I got for Opinions
&c and from the brewery £28 ... 3 ... the remaining £28 ... 16 is
all I received out of several thousands due for all my old & new
debts. In 1767 I reced £159 ... 9 ... 3 of which borrowed £5 ... 15
...--the governor's fees £10 ... 7 ... 6 reced for opinions &c £49
... 6 ...--from the brewhouse £66 ... 14 ... of which £94 ... 14
... 3 was from the brewery & 9 in 1766 I gave a collector £20
besides his board ferrage & expences & finding him horses & his
whole collection during the year turned out to be £27 ... 2 ... 10.
In the two years my taxes levied and quitrents amounted to £199 ...
8 ... 1 which would have left a ballance of £1 . 13 . 3 in my
favour in that time from the brewery & my practice (if it could be
so called) & all my debts, in great part of which you and your
brother are jointly & equally interested. What then remained to
support me & a family consisting of about 26 white people & 122
negroes? Nothing but my crops, after that I had expended above
£100, for corn only to support them, besides rice & pork to near
that value & the impending charge of £125 for rent, of £140 to
overseers yearly, remained, & £94 ... 14 ... 3 out of those crops,
as I have already mentioned, proceeding from the brewery, was
swallowed up in taxes (tho the people in England say we pay none,
but I can fatally prove that my estate from which I did not receive
sixpence has, since the commencement of the war, paid near a
thousand pounds in taxes only)."

On December 25, 1766, Mercer made public his situation in Rind's _Virginia Gazette_:

The great Number of Debts due to me for the last seven Years of my
Practice, and the Backwardness of my Clients (in attending whose
Business, I unhappily neglected my own) to make me Satisfaction,
would of itself, if I had had no other Reason, have obliged me to
quit my Practice. And when I found that by such partial Payments as
I chanced to receive I was able to keep up my Credit, I can appeal
to the Public, whether any Person, who had so many outstanding
Debts, was less importunate, or troublesome, to his Debtors, But
when I found, upon my quitting the Bar, all Payments cease, and
that I would not personally wait upon my Clients, I could not
approve of the Method of Demand, by the Sheriff, too commonly in
Practice, without Necessity. I therefore employed a Receiver, who,
ever since the first day of _January_ last, has been riding through
the _Northern Neck_, and even as far as _Williamsburg_, and who to
this Time has not been able, out of near ten thousand Pounds, to
collect as much as will pay his own Wages, and discharge my public
taxes (for Proof of which I will produce my Books to any Gentleman
concerned or desirous to see them). This too, at a Time when my own
Debts contracted by the large Expences I have been at for some
Years past for establishing a Brewery, has disabled me by any other
Means from discharging them, (except when they would take lands,
Assignments of Debts, or any thing I can spare, without Detriment
to my Plantations or Brewery). Selling Lands avail nothing, I have
bonds for some sold four or five Years ago but I can't get the
Money for them. I therefore cannot be thought too unreasonable to
give this public Notice (which the Circumstances of the Country
make most disagreeable to me) that I shall be against my
inclination obliged to bring Suits, immediately after next _April_
General Court, against all persons indebted to me who do not before
that Time, discharge their Debts to me or my Son _James Mercer_,
who will have my Books during the said Court to settle with every
Person applying to him. And as some Persons have since my quitting
the Practice, sent to me for Opinions and to settle Accounts
without sending my Fees, to prevent any more Applications of that
Sort, I give this Public Notice, that tho' I shall always be ready
to do any Thing of that Kind (which can be done at my own House)
upon receiving an adequate Satisfaction for it, it will be in vain
to expect it be any Messenger they may send without they send the
Money. There are some Gentlemen who must know that nothing in this
Advertisement can relate to them but that any of their Commands
will at any Time, be readily complied with by their

and the Public's
humble Servant
JOHN MERCER
Dec. 8, 1766

Andrew Monroe, as manager of the plantation, advertised over his own name in Purdie & Dixon's _Virginia Gazette_, of April 18, 1766, the services of "The well known Horse RANTER," an English stallion imported by Mercer in 1762 (fig. 16). One senses that without Monroe, Marlborough would have collapsed completely. In spite of his ministrations, however, there were difficulties with the staff. Purdie & Dixon's _Gazette_ carried the following on June 6, 1766:

MARLBOROUGH, STAFFORD county, May 26, 1766.

Run away from the subscriber, some time last _February_, a Negro
man named TEMPLE, about 35 years old, well set, about 5 feet 6
inches high, has a high forehead, and thick bush beard; he took a
gun with him, and wore a blue double breasted jacket with horn
buttons. I suspect he is harboured about _Bull Run_, in _Fauquier_
county, where he formerly lived. I bought him, with his mother and
sister, from Mr. _Barradall's_ executors in _Williamsburg_ above 20
years ago, and expected he would have returned home; but as he has
been so long gone, I am doubtful he may endeavour to get out of the
country by water, of which he may understand something, as he was
two years on board the _Wolf_ sloop of war in the _West Indies_,
and carries the marks of the discipline he underwent on board.

Likewise run away last Whitsun holydays two indented servants,
imported from LONDON last September, viz. JOSEPH WAIN of Bucknell,
in the county of Oxford, aged 22 years, about 5 feet 4 inches high,
round shouldered, stoops pretty much in his walk, has a down look,
and understands ploughing. WILLIAM CANTRELL of Warwickshire, aged
19, about the same height, and stoops a little, but not so much as
WAIN, has a scar under one of his eyes, but which is uncertain, has
some marks of the smallpox, his hair is of a dark brown and short,
but Wain's is cut off, he pretends to understand ploughing and
country business, and has drove a waggon since he has been in my
service; they both have fresh look. The clothes they left home in
were jackets of red plaids, brown linen shirts, _Russia_ drill
breeches with white metal buttons, and thread stockings; _Cantrell_
with an old hat and new shoes, and _Wain_ with a new hat and old
shoes; But as it is supposed that they were persuaded to elope with
four _Scotch_ servants belonging to the widow _Strother_, on
_Potowmack_ run in this county, whom they went to see, and who went
off at the same time, it is probable that they may exchange their
clothes, or have provided some other. It is supposed that they will
make for _Carolina_, where it is said an uncle of one of Mr.
_Strother's_ servants lives; and as several horses are missing
about the same time in these parts, it is very probable they did
not choose to make such a journey on foot. Whoever secures my
servants and Negro, or any of them shall, besides the reward
allowed by law, be paid any reasonable satisfaction, in proportion
to the distance and extraordinary trouble they may be put to.

JOHN MERCER

Mercer seems to have been concerned principally with his brewers and with the wasteful scheme they furthered with their incompetencies. Even they seem to have been beyond his strength, for he became ill in January 1766, and suffered recurrently the rest of the year. From his journal we can detect a once-strong man's struggle against the first warnings of approaching death:

August 26 Rode 6 m. & home had a fever 12
27 sick
28 Rode 5 m. & home 10
29 2 m. & D^o had an Ague 4
30 D^o
31 D^o
Sept 1 Had an Ague
2 Rode 5 m. & home 10

* * *

Sept 22 to M^r Selden's & ret'^d abo^t a mile
but went back 12
23 home by 12 and went to bed 10
24 Confined to my bed
(remained so rest of month)
Oct 1 Confined to my bed and very ill
5 D^o Sat up a little
6 D^o Better
7 D^o D^o
8 Drove out 3 m & home 6