Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

John Francis Mercer Letter to John Fitzgerald, Manuscript #MS 2000.47, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Acquisition Information

Gift, 1931

Biographical/Historical Information

John Francis Mercer (May 17, 1759 – August 30, 1821) was an American lawyer, planter, and politician from Virginia and Maryland. Born in 1759 in Marlborough, Stafford County, Virginia, to John Mercer and Ann Roy Mercer, he graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1775 and was a delegate for Virginia to the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1784. During the American Revolutionary War, Mercer was commissioned a captain in the 3rd Virginia Regiment in the Continental Army. He was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. In 1778 he became an aide-de-camp with the rank of major to General Charles Lee. He resigned from the army when Lee did, but reentered the war as a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia. He served briefly under Lafayette in Virginia and was present at the siege of Yorktown. After the war, Mercer moved to Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and was a Maryland delegate to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, but withdrew before signing the Constitution. He would represent Maryland in the United States House of Representatives from the second and third districts from 1792 to 1794, and served as Governor of Maryland from 1801 to 1803. He died in 1821 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is buried in Cedar Park, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Scope and Content

Concerns money sent to Mercer by Fitzgerald, arrangements for a visit by Mercer and his wife, {Sophia Sprigg} Mercer to Fitzgerald and recommends {John} Sitgreaves.

Arrangement

1 item.

Index Terms

Persons:

• Fitz-Gerrald, John
• Mercer, John Francis, 1759-1821
• Mercer, Sophia Sprigg
• Sitgreaves, John, 1740?-1802

Subjects:

• Manners and customs - Virginia - History - 18th century