Part 12 (2/2)
On June 3, 1754, his clerk reported to duty, according to a journal entry: ”Rogers came here at 50 p^r annum.” Rogers remained in Mercer's employ until 1768.
Mercer seems to have been driving himself to the limit, not to achieve success as in the prior decades, but rather to hold secure what he already had. The specter of debt now hung over him, as it did over nearly every planter, under the increasing burdens of the French and Indian War. The 17th-century wisdom of William Fitzhugh and Robert Beverley in seeking to lead the colony away from complete dependence upon tobacco was apparent to those who would remember. Marlborough, although still technically a town, was now in reality a tobacco plantation, and Mercer, despite his status as a lawyer, was as irretrievably committed to the success or failure of tobacco as was Fitzhugh 70 years earlier. The hard years were now upon all, and, like his equally hard-pressed debtors, Mercer was suffering from them.
FOOTNOTES:
[123] _Executive Journals of the Council_, op. cit. (footnote 66), vol. 5, p. 410.
[124] Ibid., p. 434.
[125] The Balthrop family lived in King George County; Smith's ordinary has not been identified; ”Vaulx's” probably refers to the home of Robert Vaulx of Pope's Creek, Westmoreland County. Vaulx was father-in-law of Lawrence Was.h.i.+ngton and died in 1755.
[126] Philip Ludwell Lee, proprietor of ”Stratford,”
Westmoreland County, 1751-1775, grandfather of General Robert E. Lee. ”Old Stratford and the Lees who Lived There,”
_Magazine of the Society of Lees of Virginia_ (Richmond, May 1925), vol. 3, no. 1, p. 15.
[127] Peter Hedgman was another Stafford County leader. He was burgess from 1742 to 1755. ”Members of the House of Burgesses,” _VHM_ (Richmond, 1901), vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 249.
[128] George Fisher visited Chiswell's ordinary: ”On Monday May the 12th 1755, at Day Break, about half an hour after Four in the morning, I left Williamsburg to proceed to Philadelphia.... About Eight o'clock, by a slow Pace, I arrived at Chiswell's Ordinary. Two Planters in the Room, I went into, were at Cards (all Fours) but on my arrival, returned into an inner Room.” ”Narrative of George Fisher,”
_WMQ_ [1] (Richmond, 1909), vol. 17, pp. 164-165.
LIFE AT MARLBOROUGH DURING THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS
On March 11, 1755, after nearly 30 years of uncertainty about his t.i.tles to Marlborough, Mercer at last was granted the entire 52-acre town in a release from the feoffees, Peter Daniel and Gerard Fowke. This was made with the provision that he should be ”Eased from making improvements on the other twenty-six Lots (those not built upon), to prevent their forfeiture and the County will be wholly reimbursed, which it is not probable it ever will be otherwise as only one Lot has been taken up in forty-seven years last past and there is not one House in the said town which has not been built by the said Mercer.”[129]
While the day-to-day events of Marlborough went on much as ever, the conflict between the British and the French spread from Canada southward along the western ridge of the Appalachians. This expansion, inevitably, was reflected in the Mercers' activities in many ways, both great and small. As the struggle approached its climax, Braddock's troops came to Virginia in March 1755, and were quartered in Alexandria. Among them was John Mercer's brother, Captain James Mercer, who was a professional soldier. On March 25 John left Marlborough for Alexandria, probably to greet James and to have him billeted at William Waite's house where young son James already was living as Waite's apprentice. This bringing together of two far-flung members of the Mercer family had unantic.i.p.ated results. Captain James was a British gentlemen-officer, untouched by the leveling influences of colonial life and therefore untempted to banish ”false pride” by any such radical means as John had employed with young James. Indeed, the sight of his nephew learning a mechanical trade must have been a rude shock, for we learn from John Mercer that Captain James ”found means to make his nephew uneasy under his choice; and I was from that time incessantly teazed, by those who well knew their interest over me, until I was brought to consent very reluctantly that he should quit the plumb and square” and become a lawyer.[130]
Mercer returned to Marlborough by way of George Mason's, near the place where a few months later William Buckland was to begin work on ”Gunston Hall.” He remained there all day on April 1--”at M^r Mason's wind bound,” he wrote in his journal. The next day he went ”home through a very great gust.”
The problems of managing a plantation went on through peace and through war. Besides a mult.i.tude of Negroes, there were also indentured white servants at Marlborough. One of these ran away and was advertised in the _Virginia Gazette_ on May 2, 1755:
... a Servant Man named _John Clark_, he pretends sometimes to be a s.h.i.+p-Carpenter by Trade, at other Times a Sawyer or a Founder ...
he is about 5 feet 7 inches high, round Shoulders, a dark Complexion, grey eyes, a large Nose and thick Lips, an _Englishman_ by birth; had on when he went away, a blue Duffil Frock with flat white Metal b.u.t.tons and round Cuffs, red corded Plush Breeches, old grey Worsted Stockings, old Shoes, and broad Pewter Buckles, brown Linen wide Trousers, some check'd s.h.i.+rts, and a Muslin Neckcloth; had also an old Beaver Hat bound round with Linen.
On October 24, the _Gazette_ carried another advertis.e.m.e.nt related to Mercer's problems of personnel:
A Miller that understands the Management of a Wind-mill, and can procure a proper Recommendation, may have good Wages, on applying to the Subscriber during the General Court, at _Williamsburg_, or afterwards, at his House in _Stafford_ County, before the last Day of November, or if any such Person will enclose his Recommendation, and let me know his Terms by the Post from _Williamsburg_, he may depend on meeting an Answer at the Post-Office there, without Charge, the first Post after his Letter comes to my Hands. _John Mercer_
In the meanwhile, the war had broken out in full scale, and the disaster at Fort Duquesne had taken place. Mercer apparently learned the bad news at a Stafford court session, for he noted in his journal on July 9, after observing his attendance at court, ”General Braddock defeated.” We can imagine his concern, for both George and John Fenton were partic.i.p.ants in the campaign.
On April 18, 1756, John Fenton was killed in action while fighting under Was.h.i.+ngton.[131] Curiously, his death was not mentioned in the journal.
Instead, we learn of the death of John Mercer's horse on the way to Williamsburg in April and of the fact that, on his return in May, Mercer lost his way and traveled 46 miles in a day. He tells us that he went ”to M^r Moncure's by water” on May 26, a distance of 15 miles, and that he made a round trip from Mr. Moncure's to Aquia Church for a total of 12 miles. On July 14, he noted that he went ”to Maj^r Hedgman's & returning thrown out of the chaise & very much bruised.”
The demands of the war are revealed in journal entries made in June 1757. On the 20th he wrote, ”to Court to p.r.i.c.k Soldiers & home,” and on the 27th, ”to Court to draft Soldiers & home.” As at other times in the journal, birth and death, in their tragic immediacy and repet.i.tiveness, were juxtaposed in September: on the 24th, ”Son John born”; on the 27th, ”Brother James died at Albany”; on the 28th, ”Son John died.”
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