James Mercer died on May 23, 1791. In 1799 the 

 Potomac Xeck properties were advertised for sale or 

 rent by John Francis Mercer in The Examiner for 

 September 6. We learn from it thnt there were 

 overseer's houses, Negro quarters and cornhouses, 

 and that "the fertility of the soil is equal to any in the 

 United States, besides which the fields all lay con- 

 venient to banks (apparently inexhaustible) of the 

 richest marie, which by repeated experiments made 

 there, is found to be superiour to any other manure 

 whatever." "30 or 40 Virginia born slaves, in 

 families, who are resident on the lands" were made 

 "available." 



THE COOKE period: 



MARLBOROUGH'S FINAL DECADES 



The plantation was bought by John Cooke of 

 Stafford County. Cooke took out an insurance 

 policy on the mansion house on June 9, 1806, with 

 the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia."" From 

 this important docunient (fig. 43) we learn that the 

 house had a repjlaeement value of $9000, and, after 

 deducting .$3000, was "actually worth six thousand 

 Dollars in ready money." The policy shows a plan 

 with a description; "Brick Dwelling House one Story 

 high covered with wood, 108 feet 8 Inches long by 

 28}) feet wide, a Cellar under about half the House." 

 Running the length of the house was a "Portico 108 



feet 8 Inches by 8 feet 4 Inches." A 'Torch 10 by 5 

 f." stood in front of the "portico," and another was 

 located at the northeast corner of the building, "8 by 

 6 feet." The policy informs us that the house was 

 occupied not by Cooke, but by John VV. Bronaugh, a 

 tenant or overseer. 



The records do not reveal how long the mansion 

 survived. That by the beginning of the century it had 

 already lost the dignity with which Mercer had 

 endowed it and was heading toward decay is quite 

 evident. After John Cooke"s death Marlborough was 

 again put up for sale in 1819, iiut this time nothing 

 was said of any buildings, only that the land was 

 adapted to the growth of red clover, that the winter 

 and spring fisheries produced $2500 per annum, and 

 that "Wild Fowl is in abundance." '^* 



Undoubtedly as the buildings disintegrated, their 

 sites were leveled. There remained only level acres 

 of grass, clover, and grain where once a poor village 

 had been erected and where John Mercer's splendid 

 estate had risen with its Palladian mansion, its 

 gardens, warehouses, and tobacco fields. Even in the 

 early 19th century the tobacco plantation, especially 

 in northern \'irginia, had become largely a thing of 

 the past. Within the memory of men still alive, the 

 one structure still standing from Mercer's time was 

 the windmill. Except for the present-day fringe of 

 modern houses, Marlborough must look today much 

 as it did after its abandonment and disintegration. 



Policy no. 1134. On niicrolilm, Virginia State Library. 



148 Virginia Herald, December 15, 1810. 



64 



