HISTORY (continued 3)

But once more bad luck and an apathetic (and probably impecunious) populace brought failure to the sale. On October 24, 1771, Purdie & Dixon’s Virginia Gazette printed the following advertisement and James Mercer’s final public effort to convert some of his father’s estate into cash:

To be SOLD to the highest Bidders, some Time Next Week, before the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg,

The beautiful Horse RANTER, a genteel FAMILY COACH, with Harness for six Horses, also several Pieces of FASHIONABLE PLATE, yet remaining of the Estate of the late John Mercer, Esquire, deceased. Credit will be allowed until the 25th of April next, the Purchasers giving Bond and Security, with Interest from the Sale; but if the Money is paid when due, the Interest will be abated.

Any Person inclinable to purchase RUSHWORTH’S COLLECTION may see them at the Printing Office, and know the Terms. At the same Place are lodged several Copies of the old Abridgment of the VIRGINIA LAWS, containing so many Precedents for Magistrates that they are esteemed well worth five Shillings, the Price asked for them.

JAMES MERCER

Williamsburg, October 24.

N.B. The Plate is lodged with Mr. Craig, and may be seen by any inclinable to purchase.

James did not attempt to sell the plantation itself or the slaves, but evidently sought to reestablish Marlborough on an efficient and profitable basis. That he failed to do so is brought out in a letter that George Mason wrote to George Washington on December 21, 1773. In it is expressed the whole tragic sequence of debt compounding debt in the plantation economy and the insurmountable burden of inherited obligations:

The embarrass’d Situation of my Friend Mr. Jas. Mercer’s Affairs gives Me much more Concern than Surprize. I always feared that his Aversion to selling the Lands & Slaves, in Expectation of paying the Debts with the Crops & Profits of the Estate, whilst a heavy Interest was still accumulating, wou’d be attended with bad Consequences, independent of his Brother’s Difficulties in England; having never, in a single Instance, seen these sort of Delays answer the Hopes of the Debtor. When Colo. [George] Mercer was first married, & thought in affluent circumstances by his Friends here, considerable purchases of Slaves were made for Him, at high prices (& I believe mostly upon Credit) which must now be sold at much less than the cost: He was originally burthened with a proportionable part of his Father’s Debts: most of which, as well as the old Gentleman’s other Debts, are not only still unpaid, but must be greatly increased by Interest; so that even if Colo. Mercer had not incurr’d a large Debt in England, He wou’d have found his Affairs here in a disagreeable Situation. I have Bye me Mr. James Mercer’s Title-Papers for his Lands on Pohick Run & on Four-mile Run, in this County; which I have hitherto endeavoured to sell for Him in Vain: for as he Left the Price entirely to Me, I cou’d not take less for them than if they had been my own.[142]

MARLBOROUGH DURING AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION

Despite the seeming unwisdom of doing so, James Mercer held on to Marlborough until his death. He was an active patriot in the Revolution, serving as a member of the Virginia Committee of Safety. Marlborough, too, seems to have been a participant in the war, when Lord Dunmore, on a last desperate foray, sailed his ships up the Potomac and attacked several plantations. That Marlborough was a target we learn from the widow of Major George Thornton of the Virginia militia, who “was at the bombardment of Marlborough, the seat of Judge Mercer, on the Potomac....”[143] In Purdie’s Virginia Gazette of August 2, 1776, we read:

Lord Dunmore, with his motley band of pirates and renegradoes, have burnt the elegant brick house of William Brent, esq., at the mouth of Acquia Creek, in Stafford county, as also two other houses lower down the Potowmack River, both the property of widow ladies.

Marlborough was no longer the property of a “widow lady,” but accurate reporting even today is not universal, and Marlborough may have been meant. In any case, the mansion was not destroyed, although we do not know whether any other buildings at Marlborough were damaged or not.

John Francis Mercer, James’ half brother, appears to have lived at Marlborough after his return from the Revolution. He served with distinction, becoming aide-de-camp to the eccentric and difficult General Charles Lee in 1778. When Lee was court-martialed after the Battle of Monmouth, John Francis resigned, but reentered the war in 1780.[144] He apparently settled at Marlborough after the surrender at Yorktown, at which he was present. In 1782 he was elected to both the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress. General Lee died the same year, stipulating in his will:

To my friend John [Francis] Mercer, Esq., of Marlborough, in Virginia, I give and bequeath the choice of two brood mares, of all my swords and pistols and ten guineas to buy a ring. I would give him more, but, as he has a good estate and a better genius, he has sufficient, if he knows how to make good use of them.[145]

It is not probable that John Francis’ “genius” was sufficient to make profitable use of Marlborough. He moved to Maryland in 1785, and later became its Governor.[146]

James Mercer died on May 23, 1791. In 1799 the Potomac Neck properties were advertised for sale or rent by John Francis Mercer in The Examiner for September 6. We learn from it that there were overseer’s houses, Negro quarters and cornhouses, and that “the fertility of the soil is equal to any in the United States, besides which the fields all lay convenient to banks (apparently inexhaustible) of the richest marle, which by repeated experiments made there, is found to be superiour to any other manure whatever.” “30 or 40 Virginia born slaves, in families, who are resident on the lands” were made “available.”

THE COOKE PERIOD: MARLBOROUGH’S FINAL DECADES

The plantation was bought by John Cooke of Stafford County. Cooke took out an insurance policy on the mansion house on June 9, 1806, with the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia.[147] From this important document (fig. 43) we learn that the house had a replacement value of $9000, and, after deducting $3000, was “actually worth six thousand Dollars in ready money.” The policy shows a plan with a description: “Brick Dwelling House one Story high covered with wood, 108 feet 8 Inches long by 28½ feet wide, a Cellar under about half the House.” Running the length of the house was a “Portico 108 feet 8 Inches by 8 feet 4 Inches.” A “Porch 10 by 5 f.” stood in front of the “portico,” and another was located at the northeast corner of the building, “8 by 6 feet.” The policy informs us that the house was occupied not by Cooke, but by John W. Bronaugh, a tenant or overseer.

The records do not reveal how long the mansion survived. That by the beginning of the century it had already lost the dignity with which Mercer had endowed it and was heading toward decay is quite evident. After John Cooke’s death Marlborough was again put up for sale in 1819, but this time nothing was said of any buildings, only that the land was adapted to the growth of red clover, that the winter and spring fisheries produced $2500 per annum, and that “Wild Fowl is in abundance.”[148]

Undoubtedly as the buildings disintegrated, their sites were leveled. There remained only level acres of grass, clover, and grain where once a poor village had been erected and where John Mercer’s splendid estate had risen with its Palladian mansion, its gardens, warehouses, and tobacco fields. Even in the early 19th century the tobacco plantation, especially in northern Virginia, had become largely a thing of the past. Within the memory of men still alive, the one structure still standing from Mercer’s time was the windmill. Except for the present-day fringe of modern houses, Marlborough must look today much as it did after its abandonment and disintegration.

FOOTNOTES: