land. No mention was made here, or in subsequent 

 transfers, of the courthouse land. Presumably it was 

 conveniendy forgotten, Mercer perhaps having duly 

 recompensed his ward. 



HEALTH AND MEDICINE 



Three weeks before his petition was read in the 

 House, Mercer became ill. On October 26, 1 748, 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." "- Twice he bought "British oyl," a 

 favorite popular nostrum sold in tall, square bottles, 

 and on another occasion "2 bottlesof Daffy"s Elixir." "■' 



"- Ten ye;irs 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 

 Virgiri'a Gazelle extolling the virtues of rattlesnake root in a 

 te.stinioni;>l. 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 .-\gue." Two weeks later the Gazette 

 carried "Proposals for Printing by Subscription a Treatise on the 

 DISL.\SES of Virginia and the Neighbouring Colonies . . . 

 To which is annexed, .\n Appendi.x, showing the strongest 

 Reiisons, a priori, that the .Seneca Rattle-Snake Root must be of 

 more use than any Medicine in the Materia Medico." 



'" Sec George B. Griffenhagkn and James Harvey Young, 

 "Old English Patent Medicines in .Vmerica," (paper 10 in 

 Contrihutions from the Museum of History and Technology: Papers 

 J -11, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 218, by various authors; 

 'V !<:bii!i,'ton: .Smithsonian Institution, l").")'>). 



In 1749 he settled his account with George Gilmer, 

 apothecary of Williamsburg, for such things as oil 

 of cinnatnon, 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 

 \omit, usually by a tartar emetic, was an accepted 

 cure for overindulgence and a host of supposed 

 ailments. That inveterate valetudinarian and ama- 

 teur physician, W'illiam Byrd, was in the habit of 

 "giving" vomits to his sick slaves."'' 



In November and December 1749 Mercer sus- 

 tained his first long illness, during which he was 

 attended by "Doctor Amson." "Taken sick" at 

 home on No\ember 13, he e\idently did not begin to 

 recover until December 1 1 . 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." 



RELIGION AND CHARITIES 



Mercer's religious observances were irregulai', 

 although usually when he was home he attended 

 Potomac Church. At the same time he continued as 

 a vestryman in Overvvharton Parish (which included 

 Potomac and Aquia churches). On September 28, 

 1 745, 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 ]\'alker, 

 an Lhidertaker to build a new brick Church, Sixty 

 Feet Square in the Cllear, for One Hundred and 

 Fifty Three Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty 

 Pounds of Transfer Tobacco.""^ 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.'"' 



The following March, the proprietors of the 



"' the Secret Diary of WUliam Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712, 

 edit. Louis B. Wright and Marian Tingling. (Richmond, 

 Virginia: The Dietz Press, 1941), p. 188 (for example). 



"= Op. cit. (footnote 19), p. 203. 



n« Virginia Gazelle, October 20, 1752; Ralph Barton Cutten, 

 The Silversmiths of Virginia (Richmond, 1953), pp. 39 40. 



