A Guide to the Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Family Papers, 1713-1853 Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Family Papers, 1713-1853 20624

A Guide to the Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Family Papers, 1713-1853

A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
Accession Number 20624


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© 2006 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.

Processed by: Trenton Hizer

Repository
The Library of Virginia
Accession Number
20624
Title
Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Family Papers, 1713-1853
Physical Description
.225
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Family Papers, 1713-1853. Accession 20624. Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from James Mercer Garnett of Baltimore, Maryland, 24 July 1933.

Biographical Information

John Garnett (d. 1713/4) immigrated to Virginia and settled in Gloucester County, later moving to Essex County, Virginia. He and his wife Ann had three children, including James Garnett (1692-1765). James Garnett married four times. He and his first wife Sarah Green Garnett had seven children. Garnett and his second wife Elizabeth Muscoe (d. 1736) had one child, Muscoe Garnett (1736-1803). Garnett had five children by his third wife Mary Jones, and none by his fourth wife Margaret Scott.

Muscoe Garnett married Grace Fenton Mercer (1751-1814) and they had ten children, including James Mercer Garnett (1770-1843) and Maria Garnett (1777-1811). James M. Garnett married Mary Eleanor Dick Mercer (1774-1837), daughter of James Mercer (1736-1793), and they had nine children, including James Mercer Garnett, Jr. (1794-1824). Maria Garnett married James Hunter (d. 1826) and they had nine children including Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (1809-1887) and Maria Hunter (1797-1873). Maria Hunter married her first cousin James Mercer Garnett, Jr., and they had one child, Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett (1821-1864).

John Mercer (1670-1717) of Dublin, Ireland, married Grace Fenton (1680-1763) and they had fifteen children, including John Mercer (1704-1768) who migrated to Stafford County, Virginia. He married first Catherine Mason (1707-1750) and they had ten children including George Mercer (1733-1784) and James Mercer (1736-1793). James Mercer married Eleanor Dick, daughter of Charles Dick (1715-1783), and they had three children, including Mary Eleanor Dick Mercer (1774-1837), who married James Mercer Garnett, and Charles Fenton Mercer (1778-1858) who did not marry.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1713-1853, of the Garnett-Mercer-Hunter families of Essex and Stafford Counties, and Fredericksburg, Virginia, consisting of: accounts, bills, bonds, essays, invoices, journals, letters, notes, patents, and wills.

Arrangement

Organized into the following six series: Series I: James Mercer Garnett Papers. Series II: Muscoe R. H. Garnett Letters. Series III: Mercer-Hunter Family Letters. Series IV: James Hunter Papers. Series V: Garnett Family Wills. Series VI: Joseph Polson Bond.

Contents List

Series I: James Mercer Garnett Papers, 1806-1840,

contain clippings, correspondence, essays, journals, and patents. Correspondence includes letters from James M. Garnett (1770-1843) of Essex County, Virginia, to James Hunter, John Randolph (1773-1833), and Robert M. T. Hunter (1809-1887), and letters to Garnett from John Randolph and John Taylor (1753-1824). Letters discuss politics, including the Aaron Burr (1756-1836) Conspiracy, relations between President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Congress, events and people in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, the embargo, public finances, first Bank of the United States, the Republican party caucus for a presidential candidate in 1808, foreign relations with Great Britain, Robert M. T. Hunter's political career, the presidential election of 1836, the sub-treasury, Virginia politics, and political parties. Correspondence also discusses agriculture, social life, family news, and personal news. Essays are written about agriculture, the Virginia Agricultural Society, and the Fredericksburg Agricultural Society; politics and the Constitution; slavery; and religion and infant baptism. There also notes and biblical quotations on infant baptism, a journal on weather and agriculture on Garnett's plantation in Essex County during 1815, a clipping on the 1808 presidential caucus, and a patent, 3 February 1836, signed by Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) to Garnett for an agricultural implement called the cultivator.

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Series II: Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett Letters, 1842-1853,

consist of letters from John Randolph Tucker (1823-1897) to Muscoe R. H. Garnett (1821-1864) detailing Tucker's education at the University of Virginia, his political beliefs, his love life, family news, and personal news. Tucker complains about Garnett's inability to correspond regularly, relates how the university has changed since Garnett left, remarks on his efforts to pursue an education in chemistry, and states he finally settled on law. Tucker also writes about politics, including the presidential elections of 1844, 1848, and 1852; local and state elections in Virginia; the Compromise of 1850; the southern states convention at Nashville, Tennessee;the Virginia constitutional convention of 1850-1851; and the leading political actors of the day. Tucker discusses his strong support for state rights and secession and denounces the North for its tyranny. Tucker comments on slavery, railroads, and economic growth. He discusses his and Garnett's legal and political careers, his family and his father Henry St. George Tucker (1780-1848), his romances, and his crisis of faith.

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Series III: Mercer-Hunter family Letters, 1767-1842
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Series IV: James Hunter Papers, 1776-1782
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Series V: Garnett Family Wills, 1713-1800,

consisting of transcripts of the wills of John Garnett, James Garnett, and Muscoe Garnett. John Garnett's will was written 7 October 1713 and recorded 11 March 1713/4 in Essex County, Virginia, Court, and the two transcripts in the collection were made and notarized 15 February 1905. James Garnett's will was written 18 April 1765 and recorded 15 July and 17 August 1765 in Essex County Court, and the two transcripts were made and notarized 31 March 1905. Muscoe Garnett's will was written 15 April 1800 and recorded in Essex County Court 21 February 1803, and one transcript was made in 1899, the other four were made and notarized 17 February 1905.

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Series VI: Joseph Polson Bond, 26 February 1761,

made by Joseph Polson of Hampshire County, (West) Virginia, with Thomas Cresap of Frederick County, Maryland.

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