Part 10 (2/2)

That there was considerable hunting at Marlborough is borne out by repeated references to powder, shot, gunpowder, and gunflints. Fis.h.i.+ng may have been carried on from the sloop and also in trap-nets of the same sort still used in Potomac Creek off the Marlborough Point sh.o.r.e.

In 1742 purchases were made of a 40-fathom seine and 3 perch lines, and in 1744 of 75 fishhooks and 2 drumlines.

FOOTNOTES:

[106] _George Mercer Papers_, op. cit. (footnote 51), p. 208.

BOOKS

In Ledger G, Mercer listed all the books of his library before 1746. He then listed additions as they occurred through 1750 (Appendix K). This astonis.h.i.+ng catalog, disclosing one of the largest libraries in Virginia at that time, reveals the catholicity of Mercer's tastes and the inquiring mind that lay behind them. Included in the catalog are the t.i.tles of perhaps the most important law library in the colony.

The names of all sorts of books on husbandry and agriculture are to be found in the list: ”Practice of farming,” ”Houghton's Husbandry,”

”Monarchy of the Bees,” ”Flax,” ”Gra.s.s,” and Evelyn's ”A Discourse of Sallets.” Mercer's interest in brewing, which later was to launch a full-scale, if abortive, commercial enterprise is reflected in ”London Brewer,” ”Scott's Distilling and Fermentation,” ”Hops,” and the ”Hop Gardin,” while ”The Craftsman,” ”Woollen Manufacture,” and ”New Improvements” indicate his concern with the efficiency of other plantation activities.

He displayed an interest in nature and science typical of an 18th-century man: ”Bacon's Natural History,” ”Gordon's Cosmography,”

”Gordon's Geography,” ”Atkinson's Epitome of Navigation,” ”Ozamun's Mathematical Recreations,” ”Keill's Astronomy,” and ”Newton's Opticks.”

Two others were ”Baker's Microscope” and ”Description of the Microscope &c.” It may be significant that in 1747 Mercer bought three microscopes from one ”Doctor Spencer” of Fredericksburg, the books on the subject and the instruments themselves possibly having been intended for the education of the three boys.

”150 Prints of Ovid's Metamorphosis” appears, in addition to ”Ovid's Metamorphosis and 25 Sins,” for which Mercer paid 8 6s. to William Parks in 1746. ”Catalog of Plants” and ”Merian of Insects” are other t.i.tles related to natural science.

Many books on history and biography are listed--for example, ”Life of Oliver Cromwell,” ”Lives of the Popes,” ”Life of the Duke of Argyle,”

”Hughes History of Barbadoes,” ”Catholick History,” ”History of Virginia,” ”Dr. Holde's History of China,” ”The English Acquisitions in Guinea,” ”Purchas's Pilgrimage.”

There are 25 t.i.tles under ”Physick & Surgery,” reflecting the planter's need to know the rudiments of medical care for his slaves and family.

Art, architecture, and travel interested him also, and we find such t.i.tles as ”n.o.blemen's Seats by Kip,” ”Willis's Survey of the Cathedrals,” ”8 Views of Scotland,” ”Perrier's Statues,” ”Pozzo's Perspective,” ”100 Views of Brabant & Flanders,” ”History of Amphitheatres.” There was but one t.i.tle on music--”The Musical Miscellany,” mentioned previously. ”Report about Silver Coins” was probably an English report on the exchange rate of silver coinage in the various British colonies.

Mercer kept abreast of English literature of his own and preceding generations: ”Swift's Sermons,” the ”Spectator” and the ”Tatler,”

”Pope's Works,” ”Turkish Spy,” ”Tom Brown's Letters from the Dead to the Living,” ”Pamela,” ”David Simple,” ”Joseph Andrews,” ”Shakespeare's Plays,” ”Ben Jonson's Works,” ”Wycherley's Plays,” ”Prior's Works,”

”Savage's Poems,” ”Cowley's Works,” and ”Select Plays” (in 16 volumes), to mention but a few. The cla.s.sics are well represented--”Lauderdale's Virgil,” ”Ovid's Art of Love,” ”Martial” (in Greek), as well as a Greek grammar and a Greek testament. There were the usual sermons and religious books, along with such diverse subjects as ”Alian's Tacticks of War,” ”Weston's Treatise of Shorthand” and ”Weston's Shorthand Copybook,” and ”Greave's Origin of Weights, &c.” He subscribed to the _London Magazine_ and the _Gentleman's Magazine_, and received regularly the _Virginia Gazette_.

While most of Mercer's books were for intellectual edification or factual reference, a few must have served the purpose of sheer visual pleasure. Such was Merian's magnificent quarto volume of hand-colored engraved plates of Surinam insects, with descriptive texts in Dutch. The 18th-century gentleman's taste for the elegant, the ”curious,” and the aesthetically delightful were all satisfied in this luxurious book, which would have been placed appropriately on a table for the pleasure of Mercer's guests.[107]

FOOTNOTES:

[107] MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN, _Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium efte Veranderung Surinaamsche Insecten_ (Antwerp, 1705).

THE PEt.i.tION

Although overseeing the construction of his mansion, buying the furniture for it, and a.s.sembling a splendid library would have been sufficient to keep lesser men busy, Mercer was absorbed in other activities as well. On May 10, 1748, for example, he recorded in his journal that he went ”to Raceground by James Taylor's & Wid^o Taliaferro's,”[108] traveling 50 miles to do so. On December 13, 1748, he went ”to Stafford Court & home. Swore to the Commission of the Peace,” thus becoming a justice of the peace for Stafford County.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 14.--ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY PLAN superimposed over detail of 1691 plat, showing southwest corner of town developed by Mercer. It can be seen that the mansion foundation was in the area near the change of course ”by the Gutt between Geo. Andrew's & the Court house,” hence in the vicinity of the courthouse site.]

In the meanwhile, years had gone by, and no action had been taken on the suit in chancery brought in the 1730's to establish Savage's survey of Marlborough as the official one. During this time, Mercer had continued to build on various lots other than those he owned, ”relying on the Lease and Consent of [the feoffees], at the Expense of above Fifteen Hundred Pounds, which Improvements would have saved forty lots.”

Finally, ”judging the only effectual way to secure his t.i.tle would be to procure an Act of General a.s.sembly for that purpose,”[109] Mercer applied to the Stafford court to purchase the county's interest in the town, to which the court agreed on August 11, 1747, the price to be 10,000 pounds of tobacco. Since this transaction required legislative approval, Mercer filed with the House of Burgesses the pet.i.tion which has served so often in these pages to tell the history of Marlborough.

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