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“I direct that after my decease my dear Wife Isabella (if she survive me) and my children do reside on my plantation in King George County adjoining to Mr James Hunter’s Land which Plantation I purchased from General George Washington and that my Executors hereafter named out of my personal Estate purchase or hire negroes as they shall think best to work the said Plantation....”
“I further direct my Books Drugs surgical Instruments shop utensils and Furniture to be sold and also such Household Furniture Negroes or stocks of Cattle and Horses as may appear to my Executors hereafter named to be for the benefit of my Personal Estate....”
Written shortly after Hugh Mercer became the colonel of the 3rd Virginia Regiment of the Virginia Line, his last will and testament disposed of his real and personal property, including slaves among his wife Isabella Gordon Mercer and children, including one yet to be born.
After playing a key role in the Battles of Trenton, in January 1777 at the Battle of Princeton, Mercer’s horse was shot from under him, and he was mortally wounded. Vastly outnumbered and mistaken by the British for George Washington, he was ordered to surrender. Instead, he drew his sword, and was bayonetted seven times. He died nine days later.
[REVOLUTIONARY WAR. SLAVERY. GEORGE WASHINGTON]. HUGH MERCER.
Manuscript Document, Contemporary Copy of Last Will and Testament, March 20, 1776, Fredericksburg, Virginia. 4 pp., 7½ x 11⅝ in.
Inventory #27335
Price: $12,500
Historical Background
George Washington’s family moved to Ferry Farm, outside of Fredericksburg, in King George County, Virginia, in 1738, when he was six years old. His father died in 1743, while they lived there, and George Washington eventually inherited the farm and lived there with his mother and siblings until his early 20s. His mother lived there until 1772, when she moved to a house in Fredericksburg. After leasing the tillable and pasture lands of Ferry Farm for two years, George Washington sold it in April 1774 to Scottish physician and fellow French and Indian War veteran Hugh Mercer for £2,000 Virginia currency, due in five annual payments plus interest.
Mercer was appointed colonel of what became the 3rd Virginia Regiment of the Virginia Line in January 1776. Both future President James Monroe and future Chief Justice John Marshall served as officers under his command. By June 1776, the Continental Congress had appointed him as a brigadier general in the Continental Army, and he left for New York to oversee the construction of Fort Lee on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.
Mercer played major roles in the First and Second Battles of Trenton on December 26, 1776, and January 2, 1777. While he was leading a vanguard of soldiers to Princeton on January 3, Mercer’s horse was shot from under him. British soldiers mistook Mercer for Washington and ordered him to surrender. Instead, Mercer drew his saber and attacked though heavily outnumbered. The British troops bayonetted him seven times and left him for dead. General Washington rallied Mercer’s men, pushed back the British regiment, and continued the attack on Princeton. Despite medical attention from Dr. Benjamin Rush and local Quakers, Mercer died nine days later from his wounds.
In 1791, Painter John Trumbull used Mercer’s son Hugh Tennent Weedon Mercer, who was five months old when his father died, as a model for the large painting, The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, on which Trumbull worked for many years.
Hugh Mercer (1726-1777) was born in Scotland as the son of a minister in the Church of Scotland. He studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen’s Marischal College and graduated as a physician in 1744. He served as an assistant surgeon under Bonnie Prince Charlie and was present at the army’s defeat at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. He went into hiding and fled to America in 1747, settling in Pennsylvania, where he practiced medicine. During the French and Indian War, he joined a Pennsylvania regiment as a soldier and was commissioned a captain in 1756. He rose to the rank of colonel and become a close friend of fellow colonel George Washington. They both served under General John Forbes during the second attempt to capture Fort Duquesne in 1758. When Forbes’s health grew worse, he placed Mercer in command of the newly-constructed Fort Pitt. In 1760, Mercer moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he continued his medical practice and opened an apothecary. In 1767, Mercer became a member of the Fredericksburg Masonic Lodge, which George Washington and six other future Revolutionary War generals among its membership. In 1775, Mercer was a member of the Fredericksburg Committee of Safety and in September, he was elected as colonel of a group of minutemen from Spotsylvania and surrounding counties. In January 1776, he was appointed colonel of what became the 3rd Virginia Regiment of the Virginia Line, which included among its junior officers future president James Monroe and future chief justice John Marshall. In June 1776, the Continental Congress appointed him as a brigadier general in the Continental Army. After playing key roles in the Battles of Trenton, Mercer was mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton early in January 1777 and died nine days later.
Condition: string bound; toning; short separations at old folds; small loss to second leaf at lower corner with loss of one quarter of one line of text; light pencil marks and inscriptions throughout.
Complete Transcript
In the name of God Amen I Hugh Mercer of Fredericksburg in the County of Spotsylvania in Virginia Esquire do make this my last will and testament in manner and form following that is to say I direct that after my decease my dear Wife Isabella (if she survive me) and my children do reside on my plantation in King George County adjoining to Mr James Hunter’s Land which Plantation I purchased from General George Washington and that my Executors hereafter named out of my personal Estate purchase or hire negroes as they shall think best to work the said Plantation during my said dear wife's life time for the benefit of her and all my children equally (but if she should object to the same then two Thirds thereof for the benefit of all my children equally till my son William or the child entitled thereto come of age and after her decease if she die before my said son William or child entitled come of age to work the whole until until my said son or the child entitled come of age and I do hereby order and direct my executors after named to repair the old House now standing on the said Plantation or erect a new one for the residence of my said dear wife and children as aforesaid as they my said Executors shall think proper and pay the charges out of my Personal Estate and after the decease of my said dear Wife I give and devise one moiety of the said Plantation to my son William for his life and after his decease to the issue of his body lawfully to be begotten and the Heirs and assigns of such issue
Remainder to my son John for life and after his decease to the issue of his body lawfully to be begotten and the Heirs and & assigns of such issue
Remainder to my Daughter Ann Gordon Mercer for life and after her decease to the Issue of her Body lawfully to be begotten and the Heirs & assigns of such issue. Remainder to such other child or children as I may have at my decease or with which my said dear Wife may be ensient[1] their Heirs and Assigns and as the other moiety of the said <2> Plantation I give the same to my son George for life and after his decease to the issue of his Body lawfully to be begotten and their Heirs with the like Remainders over to my other children and their Issue as are limited to the first moiety in case my son William die without lawful issue
I give and devise to my son William and his Heirs Two Thousand acres of Land on the River Kentucky in Fincastle County which I purchased of Mr James Duncanson I give and devise to my son George and his Heirs Two Thousands Acres of Land part of Five Thousand Acres of Land surveyed for me by warrant from the Governor of Virginia in consequence of the Royal Proclamation of 1763. I give and devise to my son John and his Heirs Three Thousand Acres of Land on the River Ohio about seventeen miles above the falls of said River in the County of Fincastle which I purchased of Colonel George Weedon I give and devise to my Daughter Anne Gordon Mercer[2] and her Heirs One thousand Acres of Land on the River Ohio Twelve miles above the Falls of the said River in the County of Fincastle which I purchased of Mr James Duncanson also one thousand acres of Land on the River Ohio six miles above the Miama River which [I] purchased of the said Mr James Duncanson. I give and devise to such Child or children as my said dear Wife is now ensient with or may be born to me after my decease his, her or Their Heirs Two Thousand acres of Land other part of the said Five Thousand Acres surveyed for me by warrant from the Governor of Virginia as abovementioned. I give to my Executors herein after named and the survivors and survivor of them his or her Heir and assigns the Houses and Lot which I bought of Mr James Hunter adjoining to the Lot of Mr Charles Dick where my Family now reside also the Lot which I bought of Mr John Sutherlands Estate and the Houses thereon joining to the lot of Mr James Allen all situate in the Town of Fredericksburg aforesaid Also the Tract of Land on the fall Hill near Fredericksburg aforesaid containing Three hundred Acres which I bought of Allan Wylie now in Tenure of Reuben Zimmerman also Three Tracts of Land on the River Yohegany[3] near Shearls crossing Called Mercerburg Fredericksburg and Winchester containing Nine <3> Hundred Acres which I purchased from the proprietors of Pennsylvania upon the trusts hereinafter mentioned I also give to my said Executors and the survivors and survivor of them his or her Executors administration and assigns my Lease of a house on the Main Street in Fredericksburg aforesaid which I now hold from John Dalton on the same trusts with the Estates before given them viz. upon Trust to all the same for the most and best price they can get for the same so soon after my decease as a peace shall be made and Lands regain their former value otherwise at the end of Years and to apply the moneys arising by such sale and the Rents and profits until such sale in manner hereinafter directed as to my Personal Estate in General I further direct my Books Drugs surgical Instruments shop utensils and Furniture to be sold and also such Household Furniture Negroes or stocks of Cattle and Horses as may appear to my Executors hereafter named to be for the benefit of my Personal Estate and those entitled thereto. The money arising by such last mentioned sales to go as the rest of my Personal Estate all Debts due from me bond not of Hand or open account are with all possible expedition to be collected in or settled on Bond with security (excepting such debts as may be due from Persons in indigent circumstances) and as to two thirds of my Personal Estate I direct the same to be equally divid[ed]amongst all my children living at my decease and of which my said dear wife may be ensient at my decease share and share alike The other Third I direct to be laid out to the best advantage and the Interests and Profits paid to my said dear Wife for her own use during her life and after her decease the principal divided amongst my children in the same manner as the former two Thirds. I give and devise all my Real Estate not hereinbefore disposed equally amongst all my children born and to be born and their Heirs equally Provided always nevertheless and it is my Express mind and will that if by any unforeseen accident the Grants and Telles of my Lands hereinbefore mentioned on the Ohio, Kentuckey and Yohegany Rivers should be vacated and annulled & rendered of no effect then reserving to my said dear Wife her Thirds of my real Estate and the Interest of one third of my Personal Estate for her life I direct my Real Estate to be all sold by my [one quarter of final line missing] <4> Survivors or Survivor of them his her or their Heirs and assigns to whom I give the same for that purpose and the money arising therefrom together with my Personal Estate to be equally divided amongst my children living at my decease or to be born afterwards and I do hereby make constitute and appoint my said dear Wife Isabella Mercer Colonel George Weedon Dr John Tennant of Port-Royal and the said James Duncanson Executors of this my Will hereby revoking all former Wills by me made I do declare this only to be my last Will and Testament wrote on one side of Two sheets Paper In Witness whereof I have to the first sheet set my hand and to this last sheet my hand and seal This Twentieth Day of March in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and seventy six
Hugh Mercer {seal}
Signed sealed Published and Delivered by the said Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us who in his presence at his request and in the presence of each other have subscribed our names as witnesses therto the Eleventh line and part of the Twelth from the bottom of the first sheet having been first struck out
Wm McWilliams
Thos Brown
Elias Hardy
[1]Archaic form of “enceinte” or pregnant.
[2]Through his daughter Ann Gordon Mercer (1762-1857), Mercer was the great-great-great grandfather of World War II General George S. Patton (1885-1945).
[3]The Youghiogheny River is a 134-mile-long tributary of the Monongahela River that runs north through western Maryland and southwestern Pennsylvania.
