The Land of Promise Among Friends -- How George Mercer feels about it
I hope to kiss your Hand [George Washingon's hand] in our native Country the Beginning of the Summer, as I [George Mercer] shall go to England in a few Days, & put myself on Board the first Spring Ship bound to the Land of Promise.
That's what George Mercer while in Dublin Ireland, wrote to George Washington on 18 Dec 1770.
This George Mercer's company had helped build Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA.
Land of Promise Do you see what he called America? The Land of Promise. And it was --- in more ways than one. In general there was more promise in America beyond England's emphasis on titles and inheritance. In America you might do well without that. America was already the Land of Promise before it separated from England. But that was in general. In specifics the promise was the 1754 Proclamation of Lt Gov Dinwiddie promising land to the boys of 1754, who wore red breeches as part of their uniform and not to any soldier after 1754.
Where was GW at the time of Mercer's letter?
GW had just completed his journey to the Ohio and Kanawha - October 5, 1770 to December 1, 1770 to look at the Promised Land of Lt Gov Dinwiddie's 1754 Proclamation. All of this was happening while the Boston Massacre jiury trials were going on. October to December 1770.
Relations to George Washington
For 10 years there were no letters between George Mercer and George Washington. For some of those years there didn't need to be. They served together in the House of Burgesses representing Frederick County VA from 1758 to 1764. But by that year of 1764 Mercer was done wanting to deal with George Washington. And then 6 years later in 1770 George Mercer needed George Washington's help again. Both in 1764 Mercer needed money for a debt, and in 1770 he needed help on his ruined American estate.
Could have been Somebody
George Mercer's hopes for help in England and America went to nothing. He could have been somebody. He could have been a contender. He got close. And he also got hung in effigy.
Founders Online summarize their shared history best:.
Mercer was hoping to go to America as the governor of Vandalia.
See note 2. GW, who had known Mercer as a boy, made him his aide-12–camp when he organized the Virginia Regiment in September 1755. Mercer remained with GW until he went with his company to South Carolina in 1757 and on his return in 1758 was given second-in-command of the new 2d Virginia Regiment.
He wrote his brother James from England on 11 Mar. 1764: “The Services I was of to Colo. Washington [as his aide-to–camp] the Country in some Measure rewarded me for—though he might have afforded to have done it himself out of his Allowance & the Reputation he obtained by it—but thank God, I have done with him, and if he will pay off this Account, I am sure I never desire to deal with him for 6d. [6 pennies] again ...” (KyBgW).
In 1773 George Mercer broke with his brother James and made GW one of three trustees of his ruined estate in America (see Advertisement of Sale of George Mercer’s Land, in the Virginia Gazette [Rind; Williamsburg], 30 June 1774).
Footnote 3 for a letter George Mercer, while in Dublin Ireland, writes to George Washington 18 December 1770
Compiled by Jim Moyer 1/11/2025, first researched in 2017
BTW
This letter starts off with mercy needed for a Mrs Savage. Her husband was renegging on a pledge to support her annually with 100 lbs. Instead Mercer told Washington that man was whipping his wife and terrorizing her. Mercer knew George Washington and Bryan Fairfax were trustees of her first huband's estate which was Dr Green. After he passed away she married Dr Savage who lived up to his name, inheristing her first husband's fortune and giving back to his wife nothing.
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Stories about Mercer
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George Mercer Wikipedia
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We learning from George Mercer in Paris on 28 November 1778 about 1754
I was at first siezed with a Rheumatism which after six Weeks Torture fixed on a Scratch, had it not been for the Scar I should perhaps not have remembered or called it a Wound, which I got at Fort Necessity 3d July 1754 on the Arm;
but it occasioned a violent Swelling in that Arm, and at Length, after suffering nine Weeks Confinement, an Abscess not less than a Child’s Head formed on the Wound, which was laid open in five different Places and afforded me Relief from my Pain; but it has never since been healed; for more than ten Days together . . .
Timeline
Feb 23, 2016
Feb 23, 2016
Timeline on George Mercer
Reenactor Group
Dec 9, 2018
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Proclamation of 1754
Proclamation of 1754 GOVERNOR ROBERT DINWIDDIE’S PROCLAMATION OF 1754 VIRGINIA, SCT. By the Honourable Robert Dinwiddie, Esq’r his Majesty’s Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of this Dominion.
A PROCLAMATION for encouraging men to enlist in his Majesty’s service for the defence and security of this colony.
WHEREAS it is determined that a Fort be immediately built on the River Ohio, at the Fork of Monogahela, to oppose any further encouragements, or hostile attempts of the French and the Indians in their interest, and for the security and protection of his majesty’s subjects in his colony; and as it is absolutely necessary that a sufficient force should be raised to erect and support the same; for an encouragement to all who shall voluntarily enter into the said service,
I do hereby notify and promise,
by and with the advice and consent of his majesty’s council of this colony, that over and above their pay, two hundred thousand acres, of his majesty the king of Great Britain’s lands, on the east side of the river Ohio, within this dominion, (one hundred thousand acres whereof to be contiguous to the said fort, and the other hundred thousand acres to be on, or near the river Ohio) shall be laid off and granted to such persons, who by their voluntary engagement and good behaviour in the said service, shall deserve the same.
And I further promise,
that the said lands shall be divided amongst them, immediately after the performance of the said service in a proportion due to their respective merit, as shall be represented to me by their officers, and held and enjoyed by them without paying any rights and also free from the payment of quit rents, for the term of fifteen years, and I do appoint this proclamation to be read and published, at the court houses, churches and chapels in each county within this colony, and that the sheriffs take care the same be done accordingly.
Given at the Council Chamber in Williamsburgh,
on the 19th day of February
in the XXVIIth year of his Majesty’s Reign,
Annoque Domini 1754.
ROBERT DINWIDDIE GOD SAVE THE KING REF:
“The Statutes at Large, Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia”, Volume VII, Edited by William Waller Hening, 1820, pp. 661-662.
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