Thomas Mercer (abt. 1635 - 1694)

Born about 1635 in Andover, Hampshire, England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 22 Nov 1694 at about age 59 in Chester County, Pennsylvania

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Biography

Thomas was a Friend (Quaker)

Father and Daughter to Pennsylvania

The Quaker Friend Thomas Mercer emigrated from England to Pennsylvania with his daughter, Ann, sometime around, or before, 1681. The couple's movements were referred to in a document created in 1709; a catalogue of Public Quaker Friends who had died in Pennsylvania. It read;

"Tho: Mercer of Andover in ye County Wilts he arriued abt ye Year 1682 or 83 & died in ye Year ... 1694". (p.16) "Ann Browne daughtr of said Thoms Mercer Came in With her ffather and recd a Teste-money for truth after her Arriuall She was Burried in ye Yr ... 1696". (p.17)^[1]

Thomas and Ann came from Andover which is not technically in Wiltshire, but rather, is situated in Hampshire, at the far eastern edge of Salisbury Plain, home to Stonehenge and the Avebury Circle. The medieval Borough of Ludgershall Castle left the old forest markers of Andover Plantation and Andover Clump on the Wiltshire side of the border. He had also lived in Dorset, Hampshire where, "Ann Mercer daughter of Thomas and Ann Mercer of Ringwood [Quaker Meeting, Dorset, Hampshire,] was borne on the 24th day of the 12th month 1666[/67]".^[2][3]

There is no reference to Thomas's wife, Ann, in documents in Pennsylvania, nor was she mentioned in “A CATALOGUE OF ‘EIGHTY-SEVEN PUBLICK FFRIENDS YT HAVE DYED IN PENSILVANIA SINCE YE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF FRIENDS THERE’, so it is assumed she died in England prior to her husband's and daughter's departure.

Early Settler in Aston Township

Thomas Mercer was noted as an early settler in Aston Township, Delaware County. A land parcel of 100 acres was surveyed to him in 1682 by the Surveyor, Charles Ashcom. ^[4] His name marks the location of his land in a historic map of Pennsylvania^[5] that was begun in 1681 and finished in May 1687. It was described as A Map Of The Improved Part Of The Province Of Pennsilvania In America, an "[e]xtraordinary map of the area ... around Philadelphia, as surveyed by Thomas Holme at the request of William Penn." In catalogue notes accompanying the The Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, the map is considered a rarity, a feat of detail. They wrote;

"It illustrates the “improved”, or settled, area of the province along the western bank of the Delaware River, a tract of approximately fifty-five miles in length and thirty-three miles in width. On a scale of one mile to one inch, it locates the holdings of 670 settlers, and was the only map of any English colony to give such a detailed account of settlement."^[6]

There is an account that Thomas Mercer disposed of a small parcel of land in Aston Township, although the wording could also suggest he gifted the parcel;

"Thomas Mercer made over a Deed for tenne Acres of Land lying in Astone dated ye 9th day of 7e 2nd moneth 1687 unto Peter Tremaine his heires and Assignes for ever".^[7]

Thomas's daughter Ann married William Brown in December, 1684. Ten years later, in 1694, ownership of a 100 acre land parcel in Aston Twp (probably the same parcel originally surveyed to him) was transferred from Thomas to his son-in-law. Given that Thomas died that same year, it's possible William was either gifted the land, or was bequeathed it in the old man's Will.

Death

Thomas's death was recorded in the Register of Burials of the Chester Monthly Meeting; "[He] deceased the 22th [sic] of ye 9th Month 1694".^[8] That is, on 22 November, 1694.

Legacy

Thomas's legacy is to be considered in the prosperity of his heirs. Much of his land became theirs, and in the absence of a copy of his Will, it can be assumed he left his daughter's family what wealth he may have accrued. There's no doubt the redistribution of a landholding comprised of prime real estate was helpful in increasing Son-In-Law William's financial success and it may have underwritten some of his children's later migrations to discover their own fertile fields, and to conjure quaker community in roughhewn meetinghouses throughout Colonial America.

There is also the legacy of his family name; Ann and William Brown named their first child Mercer in order to honour and remember Thomas, and the name was taken up as a first name for Brown sons for two hundred years.

Thomas underwrote a portion of his daughter's family's wealth, albeit a humble wealth in comparison to more well-connected families in the colony but regardless, his ancestors prospered in a way they would not have in England at the same time. Their satisfaction, and the Browns' pioneering values alone would have deeply satisfied the quaker immigrant, Thomas Mercer.

Research Notes

Two Thomas Mercers: Telling Them Apart

There were two Mercer families in Chester County who are easy to confuse but who can be differentiated with some insight. The easiest way to recognise one from the other is this Thomas sailed to America in the company of only one relative, his young, daughter Ann, who married William Brown in 1684, and died in 1696. Thomas himself died in 1694. The two relatives will only be associated with a very limited number of locations, among them Aston and Chester.

The other Thomas Mercer was from Aynho on the Hill in Northamptonshire, and travelled with his family, wife Mary, son Thomas, daughter Ann. They were associated with, among other places, Thornbury Township in Pennsylvania and figured in a greater number of baptisms, deaths, probate documents, and marriages. They also arrived in the province at a later date than Thomas and Ann.

Acknowledgements

• The research of Terrance Wagner

Sources

1. ↑ “A CATALOGUE OF ‘EIGHTY-SEVEN PUBLICK FFRIENDS YT HAVE DYED IN PENSILVANIA SINCE YE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF FRIENDS THERE.’ [Continued].” Bulletin of Friends’ Historical Society of Philadelphia 5, no. 1 (1913): 14–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41944919.
2. ↑ * Birth: "England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837"
   The National Archives; Kew, England; General Register Office: Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials; Class: RG 6; Piece: 1027
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 7097 #452488 (accessed 28 September 2022)
   
3. ↑ "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQL5-P3J : 11 December 2014), Thomas Mercer in entry for Ann Mercer, 24 Feb 1666, Birth; citing p. 18, Hampshire, record group RG6, Public Record Office, London.
4. ↑ Jordan, John W. 1915. "A History Of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, And Its People; (images 280-282 of 392): Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921 : Free Download, Borrow, And Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01jord/page/280/mode/2up?q=Aston.
5. ↑ Holme, Thomas, -1695, Lloyd P Smith, Robert Greene, and John Thornton. Fac-simile of Holmes-map of the province of Pennsylvania: with the names of the original purchasers from William Penn, begun in. Philadelphia: Lloyd P. Smith, 1687. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/88695890/.
6. ↑ "Notes From The Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Accompanying The Exhibition Of The Item, A Map Of The Improved Part Of The Province Of Pennsilvania In America. Begun By Wil: Penn Proprietary And Governour Thereof Anno 1681.". 2022. Purl.Stanford.Edu. https://purl.stanford.edu/pd515zh1159.
7. ↑ * Mercer to Tremaine; deed for 10 acres at Aston Twp in 1687: "Chester County, Pennsylvania, Record of the Courts, 1910-1975"
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry au Record 10698 #94 (accessed 24 March 2022). Extracted from p.94 of the original document, or digitised frame; 96 of 1316.
8. ↑ * Death: "U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935"
   Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2189 #99768505 (accessed 10 February 2022)
   Thomas Merser death 22 Apr [Nov] 1694 in Delaware, Pennsylvania.