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The following extract is from Black's SURNAMES OF SCOTLAND (1946) pp. 595-596: "MERCER. From the occupation, MC. mercer LL. mercerius, Fr. mercier, a mercer, draper, dealer. The word still exists in English in the sense of a dealer in silks. William Mercer or le Mercer witnessed two charters in favor of the Abbey of Kelso, c. 1200 (Kelso, 354, 507). Aleumnus Mercer was party with twenty-three others to a bond given by Alexander II to Henry III in 1244 to keep the peace. He had a grant of Tillicoultry from Walter, son of Alan. His son and successor of the same name resigned his lands into the king's hands in 1261 (Stodart, II, p. 124. Stodart spells Alcunas). A curious story of two Mercers appears in English records, which throws an interesting sidelight on the law of the period. In 1279 "a man unknown was housed at Morpathe (Morpeth) with Geoffrey and William, the mercers of Scotland. The stranger rose through the night and stole their goods to the value of 30s., and instantly fled to Cotinwode, followed by William, who slew him in flight. Both withdrew themselves and are not discredited. They may return if they will, but their chattels are confiscated for flight." (Bain, II, p. 42). (Apparently it was lawful to pursue a thief with hue and cry and do summary justice on him if found with the goods in his possession. The Mercers erred in not pursuing the thief in the recognized way.) Duncan Mersar, witness in Aberdeen, 1272, is probably Duncan Mercener, who witnessed a charter by Martin Aurifaber (Goldsmith) there in 1281 (REA., I, p. 37; II, p. 279). Austyn le Mercer, burgess of Roxburgh, Bernard le Mercer, burgess of Perth, and Wauter le Mercer, burgess of Montrose, rendered homage, 1296 (Bain. II, p. 197, 198). Thomas dictus Mercer held land "in vico Sellatorum" (Saddlers' street) of Perth, 1332 (Scon, 163). There are two old families of this name - the Mercers of Aldie and those of Innerpeffry in Strathearn. The former were intimately connected with the history and prosperity of Perth. The founder of this branch appears to have been Thomas. He had an order from Edward III in 1341 on the coast of Bordeaux for money due for raising men and horses for service in Aquitania. John Mercer, a wealthy burgess of Perth, who flourished in latter half of fourteenth century, was provost of the town in 1357, 1369, 1374, and in 1355 commissioner for Perth to arrange for the liberation of David II (APS., I. p. 517). He was taken prisoner by the English during a truce in 1376, and shortly afterwards released without ransom, much to the chagrin of Walsingham, who mentions his "inestimable wealth." An old rhyme referring to the antiquity of the Mercers of Perth says: 'So sicker 'tis as anything on earth, The Mercers aye are older than old Perth.' Another rhyme referring to them punningly records that: 'Folk say the Mercers tried the town to cheat When for two Inches they did win six feet.' This alludes to the exchange of the two Inches of Perth (where the famous clan battle was fought in 1396) for the right of sepulture in St. John's Church, Perth. Mersare 1428, Marsar 1497, Mersour 1515,Marcer 1527, Marser 1574, Mersher 1591, Mersser 160,.Merssar 1618". A. Cates provided an interestiing foot note to the above quote from Black as follows: A. Cates may be reached at: ACates4140@aol.com " Subject: Re: MERCER Surname in Scotland "That was an interesting message you posted with some material I had not seen before. I descend from a Mercer family that is said to be Scottish, in fact referred to as the '"old Scotch Mercers.' " At any rate, Thomas Mercer married Elizabeth Barnes, widow of Hugh Magregory, by 1703 and the family had land in New Castle Co., Pa-Del., and adjoining Cecil Co., Md. Their land in Cecil County was near Scotchman's Creek in Sassafras Neck, the southern part of the county. Hugh Magregory "Makrigar" and his father, James, came to Maryland in 1665 and James received a grant of 500 acres for importing the two Magregors and eight other persons. " Of the nine, only one was a woman, and she was named Jane Loveall, --- that raised my eyebrows. One of his tracts of land was named Dunbar." Conrad Mercer of South Africa provides the following about the History of the MERCER Surname at his web site: "The name Mercer is a very ancient one in Scotland, in England and in Ireland, where there was a William Mercer, bishop of Connor in 1353-75. "It is believed that the term mercer, anciently used in England and still more in Scotland, has its origins in the Low Countries. It is further believed that it is older even than the term merchant, which is of Norman-English origin, the language of the dominant race in England. "Mercer is by no means a common name in England, unlike that of Smith or Smyth, Saddler, Glover and Hawker, which, taking into account that early England was a warlike country, such that when men first took surnames from land, trades or other accidents, there were smiths, saddlers and glovers in almost every town or village of England; hence the frequency of these names. "The early Mercer's however were sellers of fine silks, velvets and later cottons, with silks being an article of the greatest luxury, confined only to the use of the high nobles. "The name appears as le Mercier in French, Mercator in Latin, Mercatori in Italian and Mercer, Le Mercer and even Marcer in Scotland, Ireland and England. "Two families of the name have been settled in Scotland from a very early period - the Mercer's of Innerpeffry, in Strathern, and those of Aldie, in Perthshire, with the latter being closely connected to the city of Perth. An inscription in the family vault of the Mercer's in the church of St. John there, records that one of them, John Mercer, died in 1280. "The founder of the baronial family of Aldie was John Mercer, who about 1340 was an opulent merchant burgess of Perth. He was provost of that city in 1357, 1369 and 1374, and several times commissioner for the burgh of Perth to the Scottish Estates of Parliament. He was also a frequent ambassador to England, France and Holland. "Another prominent member of the family was Sir Andrew Mercer, the Scottish Admiral, who made a successful attack on the English fleet at Scarborough. His father John Mercer, mentioned above, had been wrecked off the coast of Northumberland in 1376 and had been seized and imprisoned in Scarborough castle. "In 1214, Serle Mercer, a wealthy merchant was for eight weeks Mayor of London. He was again elected in 1217 and retained his office until 1222. "A certain John Mercer who flourished in the 17th century was the Town Clerk of Perth. He purchased Potterhill, near Perth 'from Mr James Mercer, only son of William Mercer, son and heir of the late Andrew Mercer, Burgess of Perth, on the 15 May 1639.' "Lord William Murray, 4th son of the Duke of Athol married the heiress of Lord Nairne. His 2nd son Robert Murray Nairne married Jean, heiress of the Mercer's of Aldie. "One Lieutenant-Colonel William Mercer was the author of 'Angliae Speculum,' or England's Looking-glass, published in London, 1646 by David Laing, Esq. He was born in Scotland, went to England when young, with his father and from there emigrated with his family and others from Yorkshire and Lancashire, at the instance of James I, of England, by whom was formed the plantation of Ulster. He was last heard of as being at Cork in 1699. "He married four wives, the first of whom, with her children perished in the rebellion of 1641. "A Captain Bernard Mercer, Royal Marines, who married the heiress of the Slaughters was descended from one Bernard le Mercer, who signed the Ragman's roll in 1296 at Perth. Marcus Hill Mercer, who served in the Army and Trevor Mercer, Royal Navy, were also of this family. "The surname Mercer also occurs in Kent and it is believed that they are a branch of the Flemish Merciers who settled in Kent. A branch of this family went to America and some of them distinguished themselves in the Navy of the United States"

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To review an abstract of sixteen generations of descendants of Christopher Mercer b. 1612, Begin here

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To review an abstract of Jimmie and Wesley MERCER'S family's descendancy from Christopher MERCER b. 1612, Begin here

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To Review "This is My Mercer Heritage" ( An abstract of the family of SOLOMON MERCER, SR. b. c. 1718, Norfolk Co, Va., d. c.1788, Robeson Co, NC) by Clara Bernice Scurry York, Feb 1998 Begin Here

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To Review "The Family of Levi Thomas" MERCER(1854-1934) [Son of Rev. Hymen MERCER(1810)] by Pat and Steve MERCER David Grover MERCER, Gainesville, GA, and, Glenn MERCER, Jonesboro, GA Begin Here

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To exchange Surname information and to share your valuable comments and suggestions. EMail Jimmie and Wesley Mercer at j.mercersr@att.net

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MERCER Family Queries: To submit by EMail your MERCER family query for posting. Click Here Click Here to visit our MERCER Query Page

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MERCER RESEARCHERS' PAGE: To submit by EMail for posting your MERCER Researcher's areas of research and expertice . Click Here Click Here to visit our MERCER RESEARCHERS' PAGE

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See the Web Pages of the other Mercer, Messer, Mercier Researchers at: Mercer Genealogical Links Thanks to Bill Turner owner of MERCER-L-request@rootsweb.com

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Have you visited our Genealogy Book Store? In association with Amazon.com Book, we always have hundred's of genealogy, writing and publishing books we have selected for you to order. In most case you usually will receive the book you order in 2-3 days and frequently at a nice discount. Check out our selection of MERCER authored or MERCER subject books. To Visit Our Book Store Now! CLICK ON BOOKS BELOW.

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NOW LET'S BROWSE OUR OTHER WEB SITE PAGES. Our pages are arranged to reflect our enjoyable and successful experiences in genealogy research on the internet. Our site is organized so that you may easily choose an interest area. You may begin to browse with our Welcome Page which serves as an index to our Web Site content. From there you may move to links to (1) other valuable genealogy web sites from which you may lauch Surname searches; (2) links to research and search machines sites which also provide the capability for surname searches; (3) links to associates in graphics, banners, backgrounds, and web site building, (4) our Families Surnames.) (5) our genealogy research, writing and publishing Book Store where you will find over 100 personally selected genealogy research, writing and publishing books we have listed for you to brouse and buy, and (6) our awards and acknowledgements. We use our web site pages daily for our own exploration of the internet for genealogy research. We find that the internet is a fun place to be for each visit opens up other vistas to new and useful genealogy and historical information. Using the internet requires a great deal of discipline for there are many distractions in the form of an infinite variety of very interesting subjects other than genealogy. Then, there are the sites that play on human frailty that beckon you to stray from the straight and narrow path. None of these distractions are a problem unless you wander from your objective of genealogy research. Happy cousin hunting, best regards, and come back to visit us again real soon as we frequently update our Web Site Pages. Jimmie and Wesley Mercer, Alpharetta, GA.

Meanwhile. please visit our Web Site genealogy Pages: |Our Home Page | Our Welcome and Index Page| Our Genealogy Research, Writing and Publishing Book Store Page: |Our Families' Surnames Index Page |Our Links to Genealogy Sites |Our Links to Reference & Search Machines Sites |Our Links to Awards, Associations, Credits, and Informational Sites |

Link to OUR FAMILIES' SURNAMES SITE AUST BROWN CAMPBELL CLARK CLARK(E) CURRY DIAL DORMAN FLOORE FOLLENDORE GARRETT HOPPER KNIGHT LAVENDER MANN KIFERIN MCDADE MERCER MYRICK ODEN ODUM REED REID ROWLAND TOWNSEND VERNON VOLLENDOR

Our Families' Surnames Page summaries all the information that is available at this time for that Surname. Check back frequently as we are in the constant process of updating our Surname information.

RUMINATING "In our youth most of us are so busy and preoccupied with the immediate and the present that we rob ourselves of the knowledge of our heritage. About the time in our lives when we realize the potential value of knowledge of our heritage, we find access to knowledge of our heritage has been dimmed or closed by aging and death of knowledgeable family members. "Most of us let preoccupation get in the way of our having for a life time the benefits of knowledge of our extended family and in the process we rob ourselves of learning who we really are. "It is extremely unlikely that a person knows themselves until they reach a full understanding of themselves in the rewarding knowledge, comforts, and discomforts of, and accountability to full family fellowship. "The foregoing statements must be puzzling observations for those of you who are fortunate to have lived amoung most of your family for all of your lives. "The foregoing statements not only must be puzzling observations; but, must appear to be logically flawed, "unscientific," and just so much "hog-wash" and "apple-pie" for those of you who have lived apart from your extended family for most of your lives. You probably have shielded yourselves from the pain of family isolation by developing a hard shell of pseudo-independence wrapped in the "busy work" of preoccupation with the immediate and the present. "To those of you who may have been fortunate enough to have lived amoung your extended family for all your lives; you may not know how blessed you are. Count your blessings. Reach out and take in all of those who have not enjoyed the pleacures of fellowship with, and the benefits of accountablity to their extended families. "To those of you who may have been unfortunate to have lived in isolation from your extended family; it is time for you to give a bountiful gift to yourselves and to your immediate family by seeking out and joining, without reservations, your extended families. There are rewards awaiting your efforts to reach out and effect closure with your extended family. These rewards will be as great as your efforts and may last into perpertuity!!! "To all family members everywhere, please join in, reach out, and let us together embrace the knowledge, values, and warmth of closure with our extended families in this endeavor we call ''Genealogy-Our Labor of Love."(tm) From a 1983 family short story by Wesley Mercer entitled "Is Wesley 'Bubba' or What?"

Email Jimmie and Wesley at j.wmercesr@att.net We welcome your informational requests for Surnames, Books, Links, and References; We value your comments and suggestions; and, We look forward to hearing from you.

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(tm1983)" GENEALOGY-OUR LABOR OF LOVE(tm)."
(c) 1996-2002 by Jimmie and Wesley Mercer. All rights reserved.Last modified on Jan 1,2002 7:21 PM