The Mercer Family

Here is a clip of the tree showing some of the Vestal Ancestors for today’s post:

The Mercers and Joseph Woodward

Thomas Mercer (1650? 1655? -1716) 7xggf  English Immigrant, Quaker We have 22 explained DNA matches with Thomas Mercer and Mary Greenaway as the common ancestors.

Little is known of Thomas’ parents Edward and Elizabeth Mercer other than that the records show them living and dying in Aynho on the Hill in Northamptonshire, England. Thomas is listed as a yeoman, or farmer, in a thesis done on Quakers in Northamptonshire in the 1600s, so it could well be that Edward Mercer was also a farmer rather than a craftsman.

Thomas was born around 1650-1655 in Aynho (also called Aynho on the Hill) in England. Thomas was fined for attending Quaker meetings in 1674, likely at the Adderbury Meeting, and imprisoned in Northhampton sometime around 1682 for the same offense. Several of his neighbors signed a petition seeking his release after Thomas and two other Quakers were imprisoned [available on the South Pope Family Tree]. He was excommunicated from the Church of England in 1685. 

He came with his wife Mary Greenaway (given sometimes as Greene), also from Aynho, to the colonies sometime before 1698. They settled in Chester County where Thomas bought 238 acres near Thornbury in 1701. Thornbury, along with Westtown and Birmingham, were the only townships in Chester County organized before 1704. He also received a grant from William Penn of 500 acres near East Marlborough; on that piece of land he had to pay an annual quitrent of 5 shillings. They built a home in Thornbury called “Springhouse” because a running spring flowed out of the cellar. The house stood as late as 1982 with the spring still running. Thomas’ will of 1715 included a great deal more in land holdings, including 500 acres in Marlborough Township. It mentions his wife, sons, and daughter Elizabeth, at that time married to Joseph Woodward. Mary died in 1723 and left her estate to her sons and a small amount of money to her daughters. Both wills were made and probated in Chester County, Pennsylvania. As we know from the Vestal post, Elizabeth Mercer Woodward married William Vestal as her second husband and was “called out” in Quaker meeting for marrying out of meeting. It was Elizabeth Mercer’s strong Quaker upbringing that likely ensured that future Vestal generations would remain Quakers as the family relocated to Virginia and North Carolina.

Adderbury Quaker Meeting House in England

I found an interesting blog about another family that left Aynho around the same time as Thomas Mercer, the Haines family. Descendants visited Aynho in 2015 and found the village to be charming and picturesque, and they sought answers to why their ancestor might have left from a member of the Aynho Historical Society, Peter Cole. Peter told them that the chances of land ownership in the area were almost none until the 1950s. As a farmer, Thomas Mercer could have envisioned that his children would have to live on the property of the lord of the manor, Cartwright, never owning their own land. Emigrating to the colonies provided him with many acres of land at reasonable cost or even as a grant from Penn with a small quitrent. Cole also pointed out that as people began to be involved in the Quaker faith, they faced fines and imprisonment. Since Thomas Mercer’s “sufferings” as a Quaker are documented in England, we know that the chance to go to William Penn’s new colony that was to be set up for religious tolerance must have seemed worth the trials of leaving. Too, Cole mentioned that sometimes people left because their friends, family or love interests left. Thomas was able to leave with his family already established, but there were undoubtedly friends of his who had already left for Penn’s colony.

Joseph Woodward (relation only by marriage)

We know little about Elizabeth Mercer’s first husband Joseph. It is believed he was born in the colonies around 1687 and died in 1715. In Quaker records we find that his 1712 marriage to Elizabeth was recorded at the Concord Monthly Meeting. There are good records of Joseph’s will, written the day he died, so he must have died from sudden illness or accident. He left money to his mother Jane Woodward and the rest of his estate to Elizabeth.

Resources

file:///C:/Users/Dana/Downloads/2006geldartpmphd.pdf  Dissertation by Paul Morton Geldart Protestant Nonconformity and Sectarianism in Restoration Northamptonshire, 2006, University of Leicester, England. This is not a live link but gives an idea of how to search it.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mercer-1063 Tree with information about Thomas Mercer’s time in England.

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Elizabeth_Mercer_%282%29 Good site with Mercer information.

http://www.tomnkarin.us/Aynho/ Interesting website about another Aynho family who left around the same time as the Mercers.

https://books.google.com/books?id=kt84AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA217&dq=thomas+mercer+chester+pennsylvania&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK4aDZsJ3gAhW0KX0KHR-2DWwQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=thomas%20mercer%20chester%20pennsylvania&f=false Online version of History of Chester County, Pennsylvania with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches, Part 1 by Futhey and Cope, published in 1881.

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~mygermanfamilies/family/JosephWMercer.html Information about Joseph Woodward.