1765, he noted in his journal, "Thr 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 



h.is sur\ i\c(l. 



THL tLOslNti YLARS '" 



The elements ol tragedy mark Mercei's Imal 

 years — the trai»edy of John Mercer and Marlborough 

 intenvoven with the epic failures of the colonial 

 experiment. Prompted by his illness, he quit his 

 lecal practice in the courts in 1 7ti5. In the same 

 year he "'gave notice to the members of the Ohio 

 C'ompany, that my health & business would not 

 longer allow me to concern myself in their affairs 

 which they had entirely flung upon my hands." 

 Me also "on account of my deafness, refused to act as 

 a justice, which I siiould not have done otherwi.se, as 

 as I have the satisfaction to know that I have clone 

 my Country some ser\ ice 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 ha\e been njorc 

 truly a slave than any one I am, or ever was, master 

 of; yet have not been able, since the first day of last 

 Januaiy, 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 optinusin he seized 

 upon the idea of establishing a brewery at Marl- 

 borough, 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 

 l)rick and stone, together with "Ollars, Clooper's 

 house & all the buildings, copper & utensils what- 

 ever, used about the brewers-." 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 \v.i\, .Meitii plunged 



further into the depths of debt by buying 40 .\. 

 "to enable nic to make Grain mfiicicnl to cm 

 my brewery- with my ow n hands." These cost i 

 "a large part of which was unpaid, for payment ol 

 which I depended on the Brewery itself & the great 

 number of Debts due to me." But the external fale 

 which was dri\ ing him closer and clo.ser to destruction 



now struck with the death of John Robinson, Irr •■•• 



of the colony, who, having lent public fund.s p: 

 cuously to debtor frirnds, had left a deficiency ol 

 £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 lumlx-red and stumbled. Mercer's 

 first brewer, a young .Scot named Wales, pn 



upon him to spend £100 to alter the new maiti 



On September 16, 1765, William King, evidentiv 

 a master brewer, arrived. He immediatrh ■ 



fault with Wales' changes in the malthouse. \\.; 



three week.s, however. King died. King's nephew, 

 named Bailey, then came unannounced with a high 

 recommendation as a brewer from a man h'- '< "' 

 ser\ed only as a gardener. Mercer was impf 

 "You may readily Ijelieve 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 hou.sc & Ix^ides found great 

 fault with Wales's malting." Faced with rixal claims 

 as to which could brew better beer, Mercer allowed 

 each to brew separately. "Yet though Baile\ found 

 as much fault with Wales's brewing as he did with his 

 malting, that brewed by Wales was the onlv Ixtt I 

 had that .Sea.son fit to drink." W 

 brewed only £40 worth of lieer. I>arr|\ 

 his wages, let alone maintenance for ! 

 wife. .Mthounh Baile\' brewed ' i 



schooner load of it to Norfolk, ii 'I 



character" that only two casks were sold, (he remain- 

 der hi^^ stored \s ' ' 



then 111 . Ilk to \l i 



to distill it failetl 



III \im i! 



iiiishel.H of 1 



and ale was i)ad. In Januai Vndrrw Moii- 



riH- "■ '■ cmployrd as o%Trscrr. Wales c<>i uplands 



"• All quot.itioiis .mil «iurc« not olhrrwiM- idcnlifird in thi» 

 smion iirr from John Mrrcrr't Irtlcr to George. Dcccmbrr '22, 



1 7f>7 J.inu.ir>' 2H. I7«S«. The r.v " "- ■■ •"•"• 



(foolnocr il), pp. 186-220. 



