When George Mercer was done with GW
"Never desire to deal with him for 6 penny again"
On 19 Aug 1759, George Mercer was appointed assistant Quarter Master of Maryland and Virginia. After that position, the 1760s began a decade of roller coaster events for George Mercer. During this letter below, George Mercer was working on the appointment of being a Stamp Collector in 1764. A year after this letter he shows up in Williamsburg only to be greeted by mob burning him in Effigy in 1765. He goes back to England. Now he's in the running to be a Governor of a new colony Vandalia in 1770. That falls apart.
We look at this man because there is a local reenactment group that protrays George Mercer as a Captain of a company who helped build Fort Loudoun and who was also aide de camp to Colonel George Washington. That reenactment company protrays George Mercer and his company during 1755-1757.
Now to the title of this story, a disaffection Mercer had with Washington:
George Mercer wrote his brother James (a future Supreme Court Justice) from England on 11 Mar. 1764:
“The Services I was of to Colo. Washington [as his aide-–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. again …” (KyBgW).
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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).
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The above is from a Founders Online Footnote 3 to a letter George Mercer, when in Dublin Ireland, wrote to George Washington 18 December 1770
GW had just completed his trip to the Ohio River 1 Dec 1770, , where he met Guyasuta and near where he measured the largest Sycamore ever recorded, all the while during the court trials on the Boston Massacre.
Source:
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But you will see they are friends again. And yet . . .
Researched by Jim Moyer in 2016, compiled for this blog post 8/20/2023
Sources
Footnotes 2 and 10
For Mercer being assistant quarter master
Footnote 3 of 1764 letter to his brother James under this letter of 18 Dec 1770 Mercer writes to GW:
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