Part 13 (1/2)

In 1758 George Mason ran for the office of burgess from both Stafford and Fairfax. On July 11, Mercer went to the Stafford elections, where ”Lee & Mason” were chosen. On the 15th, he went ”to M^r Selden's & home by water to see M^r Mason,” who evidently had come to Marlborough for a visit. Four days later, he traveled to Alexandria for the elections there and saw ”Johnston & Mason” elected.

In the fall of 1758 he went, as usual, to Williamsburg. His route this time was long and devious, taking him to both Caroline and King William County courthouses on the way, for a total of 121 miles in five days. We learn of one of the hazards of protracted journeys in the 18th century from a notation repeated daily in his journal for four days following his arrival: ”at Williamsburg Confined to Bed with the Piles.”

On November 15, soon after his return to Marlborough, Mercer was sworn to the new commission of Stafford justices. Five days previously his son Catesby had been buried, but, as usually happened, new life came to take the place of that which had survived so briefly. On May 17, 1759, Mercer recorded, ”Son John Francis born at 7 in the Evening.” John Francis evidently was given an auspicious start in life by a christening of more than ordinary formality: ”May 28. to Col^o Harrison's with the Gov^r Son christened.”

During 1759 the second edition of the _Abridgment_ was published in Glasgow, Scotland, this time with neither public notice nor recrimination.[132] On November 25, Mercer met the growing problem of his indebtedness by deeding equal shares of some of his properties, as well as whole amounts of others, to George and James Mercer, Marlborough and a few other small holdings excepted. Fifty Negroes were included in the transaction. This action was followed immediately by the release of the properties under their new t.i.tles to Colonel John Tayloe and Colonel Presley Thornton for a year, thus providing cash by which George and James could pay 3000 of John Mercer's debts.[133]

The Ohio Company was experiencing its difficulties also. Mercer's importance in it was demonstrated by his appointment to ”draw up a full State of the Company's Case setting forth the Hards.h.i.+ps We labour under and the Reasons why the Lands have not been settled and the Fort finished according to Royal Instructions....”[134] This was his most responsible a.s.signment during his activity in the company.

Indebtedness throughout these years lurked constantly in the background, now and then breaking through acutely. In 1760, for example, William Tooke, a London merchant, brought suit to collect 331 1s. 6d. which Mercer owed him. Two years later Capel Hanbury sued Mercer for 31 10s.[135]

In 1761 George Was.h.i.+ngton and George Mercer ran for burgesses from Frederick County in the Shenandoah Valley, and both were elected. John Mercer, evidently anxious to be present for the election, undertook the arduous journey to Winchester, leaving Marlborough on May 15. His itinerary was as follows:

May 15 to Fredericksburg 15 16 to Nevill's Ordinary 37 17 to Ashby's Combe's & Winchester 32 18 at Winchester (Frederick Election) (Geo Was.h.i.+ngton and Geo Mercer elected) 19 to M^r d.i.c.k's Quarter 18 20 to Pike's M^r Wormley's Quarter 12 21 to Snickers's Little River Quarters & Nevill's 60 22 to Fallmouth & home 50

In the previous year Anna had been born, and now, on December 14, 1761, Maria arrived. Between the 8th and the 20th of August, 1762, entries were made that suggest that there was an epidemic of sorts at Marlborough: ”Cupid died // Tom (Poll's) died // Daughter Elinor died // Miss B. Roy died.” In his long letter to George, written in 1768, he reflected on the fact that, although through the years 98 Negroes had been born at Marlborough, he, at that time, had fewer than the total of all he had ever bought. ”Your sister Selden,” he wrote ”attributes it to the unhealthiness of Patomack Neck, which there may be something in....

I thank G.o.d, however, that my own family has been generally as healthy as other people's.”[136]

FOOTNOTES:

[129] John Mercer's Land Book, loc. cit. (footnote 12).

[130] Purdie & Dixon's _Virginia Gazette_, September 26, 1766.

[131] John Clement Fitzpatrick, ed., _The Writings of George Was.h.i.+ngton_ (Was.h.i.+ngton: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931), vol. 1, p. 318.

[132] ”Journals of the Council of Virginia in Executive Sessions, 1737-1763,” _VHM_ (Richmond, 1907), vol. 14, p. 232 (footnote).

[133] _The George Mercer Papers_, op. cit. (footnote 51), p.

190.

[134] Ibid., p. 179.

[135] ”Proceedings of the Virginia Committee of Correspondence 1759-67,” _VHM_ (Richmond, 1905), vol. 12, p.

4.

[136] _The George Mercer Papers_, op. cit. (footnote 51), p.

213.

THE END OF THE WAR AND THE STAMP ACT

The year 1763 marked the end of the war. It also signaled a turning point in the colonies' relations with England. In a royal proclamation the King prohibited the colonies from expanding westward past the Appalachian ridge, in effect nullifying the Ohio Company's claims and objectives. George Mercer was appointed agent of the company and was dispatched to England to plead its cause.

By this time Britain was beginning to apply the other allegedly oppressive measures which preceded the Revolution. Antismuggling laws were enforced, implemented by ”writs of a.s.sistance,” thus increasing colonial burdens which had been avoided previously by widespread smuggling. The South was particularly hard hit by parliamentary orders forbidding the colonies the use of paper money as legal tender for payment of debts. In a part of the world where a credit economy and chronic indebtedness made a flexible currency essential, this measure was a disastrous matter.

Despite the ominousness of the times, Mercer continued with the daily routine, the minutiae of which filled his journal. He noted on January 9, 1763, that he went to Potomac Church--”Neither Minister or clerk there.” On February 21 he went a mile--probably up Potomac Creek--to watch ”John Waugh's halling the Saine & home.” On March 1 his merchant friend John Champe was buried. After the funeral Mercer went directly to Selden's for an Ohio Company meeting.

From December 10 until March 1765, Mercer was sick. Of this interval, he wrote George in 1768 that ”My business had latterly so much encreased, together with my slowness in writing, & Rogers, tho a tolerable good clerk, was so incapable of a.s.sisting me out of the common road, that when you saw me at Williamsburg, I was reduced by my fatigue, to a very valetudinary state.”[137] Indebtedness, overwork, advancing age, and the reverses of the times had evidently caused a crisis.