Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/324

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\'IRG1XIA BIOGRAPHY

Mercer, of ■"Marlborough." was born Feb- ruary 19. 1716; was a resident of Virginia before 1745. He was captain in the Car- thagena expedition in 1740. He returned to Virginia in 1755 as captain of the Eighteenth Regiment of Foot, commanded by Colonel Dunbar, in the expedition against Fort Duquesne, and continued in the mili- tary service till his. death, when he had attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He died unmarried at Albany, Xew York, Sep- tember 2"], 1757.

Mercer, John, of "Marlborough."" an emi- nent lawyer, was son of John Mercer, of Dublin, Ireland, and his wife, Grace Fenton, and grandson of Robert Mercer and his wife, Elinor Reynolds, and great-grandson of Noel Mercer, of Chester, England, and his wife, Ann Smith ; born in Dublin, Febru- ary 6, 1740, and emigrated to Virginia in 1720. at the age of sixteen. He studied law. and entered on the practice in 1728. Fie acquired large landed possessions in Vir- ginia and Ireland, and improved his great natural abilities by extensive study in polite literature. He left a library of 1500 volumes, one-third of which were law books. He was secretary of the Ohio Company and vestryman of Acquia church. He was the author of an "Abridgement of the Laws of Virginia," published at Williamsburg in 1737, with a continuation in 1739, no copy of which last is known ; and of a second edi- tion published in (Jlasgow, Scotland, in 1759. He was also the author of a tract against the Stamp Act. said to be the first published ill Virginia. He married (first) Catherine Mason, aunt of George Mason, the states- man of the revolution ; married (second) Anne Roy, of Essex county. He died at his

seat. "Marlborough." in Staftord county, \'irginia. October 14. 1768.

Mercer, John Fenton, son of John Mer- cer, of "Marlborough." was ensign in 1754 ii' Fry's regiment in the French and Indian war. lieutenant in Robert Stewart's com- ' I>any on the Fort Duquesne expedition, and captain in Washington's regiment ; was killed in action and scalped by the Indians, |

April 18. 1756. at Edwards' Fort, on the \ Warm Springs mountains, while in com- ■

mand of a scouting party of 100 men. j

Meredith, Samuel, son of Samuel Mere- i dith (died April 14. 1762), was born in Han- over county in 1732; captain of a company ' in tlie French and Indian war, 1758; cap- |

tain of an independent company of Hanover in 1775 ; burgess for Hanover county in 1 766- 1 769, and member of the convention \

of December, 1775 appointed colonel of the first battalion of minute men in May, 1776; moved from Hanover to Amherst county j

about 1780; was lieutenant-coloneF of the '

Amherst militia, justice of the peace and sheriff. He died December 22, 1808. His ,

second wife was Jane Henry, a sister of \ Patrick Henry. i

I

Meriwether, Francis, son of Nicholas Meriwether, a native of Wales, was a large landholder in Essex county ; clerk of Essex county from 1692 to 1702; senior justice of Essex in 171 1 ; and burgess for the county ,

V'.' 1705-1706. He married Mary Bathurst, j

daughter of Lancelot Bathurst, and died in 1712 or 1713.

Meriwether, Nicholas, son of Nicholas Meriwether, of Wales, was born October 26, 1667; resided first in James City county, then in New Kent, and latterly in Hanover.