II 



J oil II Mercer s Ocriipiifioii 

 of Alcir/ borough, 11 lb- 17 M) 



MERCER S ARRIVAL IN STAFFORD COUNTY 



By 1723 Marlboroueli lay al)aiicloncd. Gcortjo 

 Mason (III), son of ilic lalo slicrifTand ordinary keeper 

 in the port town, held the now-empty title of feoffee, 

 together with Rice Hooc. In that year Mason and 

 Hooc petitioned the General Court "that Lea\e may 

 be given to bring in a Bill to enable them to sell the 

 said Land [of the town] the same not being built 

 upon or Inhabited." The petition was put aside for 

 ■"consideration," but within a week- on May 21, 

 1 723 —it was '"oidered That Rice Hooe & George 

 Mason be at liberty to withdraw their petition . . . 

 and that the Committee to whom it was referred be 

 discharged from proceeding thereon." ** 



This curious sec|uencc remains unexplained. Had 

 the committee informally advised the feofTees that 

 their cause would be rejected, sucijestini;, therefore, 

 that they withdiaw their petition.' ( )r had something 

 unexpected occurred to provide an alternative 

 solution to the problem of Marlborough? 



Possibly it was the latter, and the unexpected oc- 

 currence may have been the arrival in Stafford County 

 of young John Mercer. There is no direct evidence 

 ih.il Meicer was in the vicinity as early as 1723; but 

 we know that he appeared before 1725, that he had 

 by then Ijecome well .icquainted with Georue Mason, 

 and that he .settled in Marlborough in 172t). 



7««. /7/:?-/72S( Richmond. I')I2), pp. tJb. 37t. 



Mercers remarkable career began with his ariival 

 in \'irginia at the age of lb. Born in Dublin in 1704, 

 the son of a Church Street merchant of English 

 descent also named John M' <\ of Grace 



Fenton Mercer, John was <> at Trinity 



College, and then sailed for the New World in 1 720.** 

 How Mercer arrived in N'irginia or what means he 

 brought with him are lost to the record. From his 

 own words written toward the end of his life we 

 know that he was not overburdened witli wealth: 



"Except my education 1 never not a shilling of my 

 fathers or any otlier relations estate, cverN- [x-nny I ever 

 i;ot has been by my ow : ii. with as much fatigue 



as most people have in " 



From his second ledger (the first, covering the 

 years 1720-1724, having been lost) we learn that he 



was engaged in miscellaneous tradin:: ■' ;■■ :ind 



down the rivers in his sloop and c \ <;ds 



along the way. Where his home was m these early 

 years we do not know, but it would appear that he 

 had been active in the Stafford County le^ion for 

 some time, judging from the fact that by 1 723 he had 

 accumulated £322 4s. 5Sd. worth of tolwcco in .i 



'" "Juuin.iU 111 ihr I 

 I7:i7-I7M." 17/U iK 



*' (irat^f .\trt(fr I'af 

 romp, and rdil. I>y I 

 rillilnirKh Prr«. I9.VI). p. /m. 



13 



