Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/278

  Vautrollier). A dedication in Italian to Queen Elizabeth is followed by a commendatory address to ‘the vertuous reader,’ by Henry Unton.

In 1582–3 Merbury was employed on official business in France, probably as a spy. In April and August 1582 he corresponded with Walsingham from Paris and Orleans, and complained of robbery by pirates (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Add. 1580–1625, pp. 56–72). In Nov. 1583 he was at La Rochelle, and sent Anthony Bacon [q. v.] an account of current gossip there. In December he wrote to Bacon from Poitiers (, Memoirs of Elizabeth, i. 42–4).

 MERCER, ANDREW (1775–1842), poet and topographer, was born in Selkirk in 1775. He was destined for the ministry, and in 1790 entered the university of Edinburgh. Ultimately he gave up theology, studied the fine arts, and endeavoured unsuccessfully to make a living in Edinburgh as a miniature-painter and man of letters. He wrote both in prose and verse for the ‘Edinburgh’ and ‘Scots’ magazines, and edited the ‘North British Magazine’ during its short existence. He subsequently settled in Dunfermline, where he lived by teaching and by drawing patterns for the damask manufacturers. His best-known work is a ‘History of Dunfermline from the earliest Records’ (Dunfermline, 1828). There was also published in his name an ‘Historical and Chronological Table of the Ancient Town of Dunfermline from 1064 to 1834,’ which was really an abridgment, with the consent of the author, Mr. E. Henderson, of a manuscript volume entitled ‘Annals of Dunfermline from the earliest Records to 1833.’ He was the author of a poem on ‘Dunfermline Abbey’ (Dunfermline, 1819), and a volume of verse, ‘Summer Months among the Mountains’ (Edinburgh, 1838). A man of considerable ingenuity and scholarship, he lacked steadiness of application, and his last years were clouded by poverty. He died at Dunfermline, 11 June 1842.

 MERCER, HUGH (1726?–1777), American brigadier-general, is described by American biographers as a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, born about 1721, who studied medicine at Aberdeen University. The name ‘Hugo Mercer’ is among the fourth-year students of 1744 in the ‘Album Studiensis’ of Marischal College, Aberdeen. His age, probably, was between sixteen and eighteen. The academic records afford no other particulars. Mercer was a surgeon's mate in the Pretender's army, and afterwards went to America in 1747, and settled as a doctor near what is now Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. He is said to have served in the expedition against Fort Du Quesne, under General Edward Braddock [q. v.], and to have been wounded at the Monaghahela 9 July 1756, for which he received a medal from the corporation of Philadelphia. Winthrop Sargent, in his monograph of the expedition, implies uncertainty on this point. Among the provincial officers engaged were two other Mercers, George and John, who were thanked by the burgesses (see Trans. Hist. Soc. of Philadelphia, v. 240, 329). Mercer became a lieutenant-colonel of provincials in 1758, and accompanied the expedition under Brigadier-general John Forbes against the new Fort Du Quesne, where he was for several months in command (see, Montcalm and Wolfe, xi. 49, 130–162). Mercer then returned to medical practice, establishing himself at Fredericksburg, Virginia. He organised and drilled the Virginia militia; commanded the minute men at the outbreak of the revolution; was appointed colonel of the 3rd Virginia regiment; and in June 1776, at the desire of Washington, was chosen by congress a brigadier-general, with command of a flying brigade. He accompanied Washington in his retreat through New Jersey. He led the attack on the Hessians at Trenton, and advised the night march on Princeton, in which he led the advance. His horse was disabled while he was attempting to rally his troops, mostly raw militia, and he was himself knocked down with the butt of a musket and bayoneted when on the ground. After several days of severe suffering he died of his wounds 12 Jan. 1777. His funeral was attended by 20,000 people. The St. Andrew Society of Philadelphia raised a monument to him in the Laurel Hill cemetery, and in 1790 congress made provision for the education of his youngest son, Hugh. Mercer County, Kentucky, is named after him.

Mercer had an elder son, John, who died a colonel in the United States army in 1817. The younger, Hugh, died at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1853, aged 77. A married daughter, Anna Gordon Patton, died in 1832, aged 58. [Information kindly supplied by the Registrar of the University of Aberdeen; Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, 2 vols. London, 1884;