Balthasar Mercer and His Family
By Kai Jumaane DREWES, of Braunschweig, Germany
(© 1998-2003, last modified on 13 November 2003)
Dedicated to my brother-in-law Marcel (Meier) Drewes, a lover of Scotland
Abstract
Balthasar Mercer / Archibald Merser (b. abt. 1600, d. Bremen 1650) was a wealthy merchant burgess and mayor in Culross (then co. Perth, now co. Fife) on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, Scotland and also a Scottish M.P. for two times. He emigrated in or about 1645 when the British Civil War reached his country for he and his family were supporters of the Stuart dynasty. With his wife Elizabeth née Kennedy (of noble descent, b. abt. 1610, d. Bremen 1660) and six children he went to Bremen, Germany. There he had already been at least in 1634 to act as manager of Sir George Bruce of Carnock, a rich coal and salt mine owner in Culross.
Of Mercer's six children one son died in Bremen and the other two went to the Canary Islands and India but Thomas Mercer perhaps eventually returned to Scotland and abt. 1680 lived as a Quaker in Aberdeen. The eldest daughter Helen Mercer married James Claypoole, a merchant in London and afterwards in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where they emigrated as prominent Quakers in 1683. Elizabeth Mercer, the middle daughter, married the Hessian court preacher and historian Friedrich Lucae. Finally her youngest sister Margaret Elizabeth Mercer became the woman of Jost Christoph Uckermann, a merchant in Wanfried, Hesse. Balthasar Mercer's posterity in Germany and most of all in the United States is immense.
Introduction
Friedrich Lucae (1644-1708) had already been court preacher in Liegnitz, Silesia for four years and was yet unmarried when he fell in love with a Scottish woman in 1675 whom he eventually would marry. The ecclesiastic describes this very worthy of love story in his autobiography. There he tells us about his wife's descendance:
"Mistress Mercer was the daughter of Mr. Balthasar Mercer, formerly parliamentary assessor at Edinburgh, in Scotland, who had many times been sent to England by King Charles I on weighty commissions, and once on a mission to Hamburg, where he was decorated with a golden medal of honour. Her mother, also called Elizabeth, was of noble lineage, born a Kennewy [i.e. Kennedy] of Scotland. When in 1644 perilous troubles broke forth in England, her honoured father and also her [sic!] brother, the court preacher Robert Mercer, as they had been favourites of the decapitated king, fled the kingdom from fear of Cromwell and his party; he went with all belonging to him to Bremen, where he lived on his own means, which were pretty considerable, till his happy end in 1650, leaving a widow, a pious, godly matron, with three sons and three daughters. The sons had gone forth into the world, one to India, another to the Canary Islands; of the daughters the eldest was married in London to a nephew of Cromwell in London, of the noble family of Cleipold, and the youngest to a merchant named Uckermann in Wanfried in Hesse, the second was my love. In the year 1660 her lady mother also died in Bremen, and was laid beside her honoured father in the church of St. Stephen [...]" [1]
(Unfortunately the English translation is not absolutely exact: Lucae mentions his father-in-law's "weighty commissions" in general, but not any to England in particular - the word "England" refers to King Charles I. And he names his brother-in-law "Cleipold" not only Cromwell's nephew but explicitely his "Schwestersohn", i.e. sister's son.) [2]
Furthermore Lucae reports that in the beginning he thought his later wife was a noblewoman but then he got to know that she came of a good family but was not noble. [3] If she had been a noblewoman, we read between the lines, he would have never dared to propose to her. And, of course, the future married couple did not only belong to the same estate but also to the same confession, he as a Calvinistic court preacher, she as a baptized Presbyterian.
Apart from an interesting economy historical study by Karl-Heinz SCHWEBEL, late director of the State Archive of Bremen, from 1988 that mentions Balthasar Mercer [4] nobody in Germany has published anything about this subject for more than 70 years. Then it was the important German genealogist Hans-Friedrich VON EHRENKROOK to speak of "this very interesting descendance" from Scottish emigrants in an article about the (von) Uckermann family. [5] In the United States where the Claypooles have a vast descendance many genealogists trace their ancestry back to Elizabeth and Balthasar Mercer, and the first who asked for Helen Mercer's descent was Milton RUBINCAM in 1947. [6] Not knowing this article I myself came to rather similar conclusions in an article I published in Germany in 1998 [7] but since then I have found out many more details about the moving story of this interesting family ...
Mercer's Life
i) Mercer as an M.P. for Culross Burgh
Balthasar Mercer is named a "parliamentary assessor in Edinburgh". Actually, in the Scottish M.P.s' list we find several Mercers or Mersers - who in their majority may have been members of the important Mercer family from Perth (see iii) - but nobody of the forename Balthasar. [8]
Now the emigrant sometimes is called A r c h i b a l d Merser in business letters from Bremen in 1634 (see ii), and this is not a secretary's mistake [9] - on the contrary, B a l t h a s a r is the bowdlerization of Archibald, a then very popular name in Scotland. As we will see the emigrant namely came from Culross on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, and therefore it is doubtless which representative he was:
Archibald Merser, merchant burgess in Culross (then co. Perth, now co. Fife) and for this Royal Burgh member of the parliaments from 1639-41 (date of commission: 14 August 1639) and from 1644-47. [10]
In his second period as an M.P. Archibald Merser was only present at the first three sessions (from 4 June to 29 July 1644 and from 7 January to 8 March 1645 in Edinburgh and from 8 to 11 July 1645 in Stirling) [11] and maybe in this very year 1645 the flight to Bremen took place. [12]
However Archibald was replaced for a short time by Andro Merser from Culross who was present at the fourth session from 24 July to 7 August 1645 which took place in Perth. [13] Is he Archibald's brother? And what were there relations to Mr Robert Gourley who represented Culross Burgh at the sixth session from 3 November 1646 to 27 March 1647 in Edinburgh? [14] And it is remarkable that there was not anybody to represent Culross Burgh at the fifth session from 26 November 1645 to 4 February 1646 in St Andrews.
Robert Gourley already appears as an M.P. for Culross Burgh in the second session of the Parliament from 1639 to 1641 which is said in the Roll of 25 May 1641. [14a] This second parliament of King Charles I which Archibald Mercer actually was a member of during all the time of its existence was prorogued twice and eventually dissolved after its third session. It is revealing that there were several other Burghs which changed there M.P.s or sometimes sent more than one person to Edinburgh. Perhaps Culross already faced heavy internal conflicts too in these years? Anyway in the parliament from 1643-44 the Burgh of Culross was represented by Alexander Eizat in the first session from 22 June to 26 August 1643 (in Edinburgh) and then again by Robert Gourlay in the second session from 3 January to 3 June 1644 (in Edinburgh too) [14b] - Archibald Mercer does not appear but became an M.P. again in the next parliament as we saw above.
Archibald and Andro Merser as Members of Parliament 1644-45
Balthasar Mercer alias Archibald Merser cannot have fled in 1644 because in 1645 he still lived in Scotland. So his son-in-law Lucae is wrong with the statement of the exact year. And the advance of Cromwell's troups in
Scotland became highly dangerous to Mercer not before 1647/48 when King Charles I was prisoned and his Scottish supporters were outlawed. Thus we can suppose that in fact the royalist Mercer fled of the Scottish Covenants in 1645 (Charles I still lived then!). Later on the fear of Cromwell's regime made Mercer and afterwards his widow stay in their exile.
ii) Mercer's Activities in Culross and Bremen in the 1630s and 1640s
Not by chance Mercer went to Bremen. He had not "lived here during a long time" [15] before his death in 1650 but in the 1630s he seems often to have been in Bremen: He worked then - and perhaps later, too - as manager for Sir George Bruce of Carnock (abt. 1566-1643), a rich salt and coal mine owner in Culross. Bruce's mines worked with the then most modern technics and were well-known. According to that Culross had its flourishing time in the 17th century - but we may not forget the incredible distress of the worker families -, and especially with Bremen there was intensive trade.
Fortunately we know an interesting correspondence between Bremen and Culross from the year 1634. On 11 April 1634 the Senate of Bremen wrote to Bruce - we learn from a summary - that "there had been made a contract with his servant Balthasar Merser concerning abt. 300 charges of salt the city of Bremen would buy from Brust [i.e. Bruce]. (...) The delivery would take place not later than in August and afterwards Brusts manager would be payed in Amsterdam. (...) During the summer some more business letters followed (...). There also exists an additional contract issued by Merser on 10 September 1634 into
which he declares (...) his master had granted five per cent discount (...)." [16]
This information is valuable to us for hence it appears Balthasar
Mercer's position in Scotland as well as his business connections to Germany. Probably Mercer's family came from Edinburgh or Perth to Culross to participate in the industrial boom (if the Mercers had not been resident here before). [17] It might be interesting to get to know more about Mercer's relations to the Bruce family. Maybe Sir George Bruce's maternal grandfather Archibald (!) Primrose of Burnbrae (d. 1593/94), Chamberlain of Culross, [18] was Archibald / Balthasar Mercer's grandfather, too? Researches in Scotland are necessary to find out more.
The Scottish National Archives in Edinburgh hold a letter from
Archibald Mercer to Lord Ogilvy in London (with a seal affixed) concerning financial business which was written in the 17th century and is still to be researched. [19] If it was our Archibald / Balthasar Mercer to write this letter, what is quite obvious, the addressee is likely to be James Ogilvy (abt. 1593-1666), 8th lord Ogilvy since 1618 and earl of Airlie since 1639. Ogilvy, too, who was a prominent royalist during the civil war and was forfeited from parliament on 11 February 1645! [20]
In any case Balthasar Mercer became an M.P. because he as a member of the aspiring bourgeoises had profited from the economic development. By the way, Sir George Bruce's father of the same name was one of Mercer's predecessors as an M.P.: From 1612 to 1625 he represented the Royal Burgh of Culross in five Scottish parliaments. [21] When his eldest daugther Helen married in Bremen in 1658 we also hear her late father Balthasar Mercer had been a "former mayor in Scotland". But until now we donot have any proof Mercer also was mayor of his home town Culross.
Scottish salt ports in the 17th century (card taken from [4], p. 49)
The baptism records of Culross begin in 1641 and from the genealogical data bank of the LDS Church we learn that Archibald Merser in Culross was the father of a son Thomas who was baptized on 26 September 1641 as well as of another son whose name is unknown and who was baptized on 8 September 1642 (both times the children's mother is not mentioned by name). [22] Unfortunately we donot know anything about the birth of Balthasar Mercer's third son.
The eldest daughter Helen Mercer had been born abt. 1634, i.e. before the church books begin. As the youngest daughter Margaret Elizabeth is said to have been 44 years, 6 months and 5 days old when she was buried in Wanfried, Hesse on 8 April 1689 she must have been born abt. 3 October 1644. But in the church book of Culross there seems to be neither an entry for her baptism nor for that of her older sister Elizabeth. [23] As Elizabeth became a mother for the last time in 1683 one could think she was born not 1640 or before but exactly in 1643. In this case Elizabeth (Kennedy) Mercer would have been pregnant each year at least from 1641 to 1644 but this ist not very likely. Anyway it is remarkable that all three sisters still got children in a relatively high age of more than 40 years.
It is very interesting that there also lived a Henrie (Henry) Mercer in Culross whose son Robert was baptized on 2 February 1658. [24] Was Henry a nephew of Balthasar and perhaps a son of Andro Mercer? And still on abt. 21 July 1754 another Arch(i)bald Mercer was christened in Culross, being the son of Robert Mercer and Margaret Hall. [25] So there still lived members of the family in Culross more than one century after Balthasar Mercer's flight. Perhaps Robert (b. abt. 1720/30) and Archibald (b. 1754) are descendants of the above mentioned Henrie (b. abt. 1630) and Robert Mercer (b. 1658).
Perhaps Jean Mercer (b. abt. 1662) is a daughter of Henrie Mercer from Culross, too. On 2 October 1684 she married John Angus (b. abt. 1660), a merchant in Dunfermline. Between 1685 and 1701 the couple got seven children, among them a son Henrie (b. 1689). [26]
iii) The Mercers of Aldie
The Mercers of Aldie are the most famous Scottish family of this name. Concerning this family we know its great loyalty to the Stuarts during the 1640s and 1650s revolution: "(...) in the dark days of the rebellion and revolution the Mercers kept in the straightest path of loyalty, and gave up office and position for the sake of the Royal throne of Stuart." [27] Thus, Balthasar Mercer might be a member of this family, too, which originally came from Perth but we cannot prove it so far.
This notorious patrician family Mercer is detectable in Perth since the 13th century (Perth was Scotland's capital until abt. 1453). [28] With John Mercer who was provost (mayor) of Perth and a wealthy merchant the family's decline began into a noble or quasi-noble position. This John was several times Member of Parliament and in 1377 he also temporary figured as Scottish chamberlain. He was one of the most important financiers to the weak Scottish King David II Bruce and his successors and was also in great esteem with Charles V of France. As his sovereign's ambassador he often went to England, France and the Netherlandes. [29]
In 1352 John Mercer had married Ada Murray of Tullibardine from an important noble family. [30] Their grandson Sir Michael Mercer (b. 1379, d. abt. 1439), son of Sir Andrew Mercer, married Elizabeth Stewart of Durrisdeer in 1402. Her father Sir Robert Stewart of Durrisdeer [31] had married Janet MacDougall, a great-granddaughter of King Robert I Bruce (b. 1274, d. 1329) of Scotland who descents from many Scottish, English, Irish, French, German, Italian, Russian etc. kings and, of course, many times from Emperor Charles the Great.
Sir Michael Mercer's descendants lived for centuries in the town and county of Perth. As we heard before in the midth-17th-century they acted very loyal with the Stuart dynasty and one of these descendants might be our Balthasar Mercer. If so he and his descendants have royal ancestors! On the other hand it is certain Queen Elizabeth II descents from the Mercers of Aldie (see her exact lineage here).
Sir James Mercer (d. 1671), laird of Aldie, a descendant of Sir Michael, was an M.P. for Perthshire from 1645 to 1647. He served as a gentleman usher to King Charles II and was taken prisoner after the battle of Kilsyth in 1645. [32] It would be very interesting to know if there was any political relation between him and Archibald / Balthasar Mercer. Maybe it is worth mentioning that Sir James' maternal grandfather was Sir James Colville (1551-1629), 1st baron Colville of Culross who had a grant of lands in Culross. [33]
iiia) The Mercer family in Aberdeen
Although Aberdeen is not that close to Culross there seems to have been a connection between the Mercers of these towns: On 20 June 1682 ("20th, 4th mo., 1682") James Claypoole from London wrote a letter to the prominent Quaker Robert Barclay ("Dear Friend Robert Barclay") who lived near Aberdeen. This letter ends with the sentence: "My dear love to my cousin Thomas Mercer when thou sees him." [33A] This Thomas Mercer is known as a Quaker in Aberdeen (see below) which indicates that Claypoole's father-in-law Balthasar Mercer too derives from the family in Aberdeen of this name. In the church books of St Nicholas in Aberdeen we find indeed a numerous Merser (Mercer) family since the 1570s which produced two members of the name - Archibald Merser, one being baptized on 26 November 1603 (as son of Robert Merser and Isbell Collysone), the other on 10 February 1607 (as son of John Merser and Issobell Reid)! [33a]
Unfortunately it is relatively difficult to reconstruct the genealogy of the Mersers in Aberdeen but interesting for us is the fact that the first Archibald who was born in 1603 had an older brother named Robert (bapt. Aberdeen 25 August 1588) [33b] which corresponds with Friedrich Lucae's statement that his wife had an uncle of that name. What is more this Robert Mercer in Aberdeen is probably the one who married Bessie Chalmer and with her had a son Thomas Mercer (bapt. Aberdeen 16 September 1635). [33c] But James Claypoole's cousin who lived in Aberdeen in 1682 (see below)? Do the Mercers in Aberdeen derive from the Mercers of Aldie (with whom they share the use of forenames like Lawrence and Robert)? And was our Archibald Mercer born in Aberdeen in November 1603? Hopefully advanced researches in Scotland will clarify these important questions.
iv) Elizabeth Kennedy's Descent
Balthasar Mercer's wife Elizabeth (b. abt. 1610) was a née "Kennewy" and is said to have been of noble heritage. "Kennewy", of course, is a transmogrifying of the well-known name Kennedy which is wide-spread in Ireland and Scotland. But which is the noble family Elizabeth descents from?
Perhaps it is significant that Balthasar and Elizabeth Mercer named one of their three sons Thomas (the only one whose name we know so far) because this forename is typical for the noble Kennedy family of Culzean in Ayrshire: It is possible Thomas Mercer got his name from his maternal grandfather. Indeed there was an Elspet Kennedie who was baptized on 13 April 1610 in South Leith, Midlothian [34] and here parents were Thomas Kennedy and Marion Fairlie who had married in Edinburgh on 4 May 1609. [35]
Furthermore, it might me possible that the namely Thomas Kennedy was the same who was born abt. 1586 in Culzean Castle, Ayrshire as the fifth child of Sir Thomas Kennedy (b. abt. 1545, d. 1602) and (m. abt. 1577) Elizabeth McGill (b. abt. 1556, d. 1622). And as among their seven children we also find two daughters Margaret (b. abt. 1580, d. after 1609, m. 1599 Patrick Agnew, b. 1578, d. 1661) and Helen (b. abt. 1582, d. after 1610, m. abt. 1601 James Mure, b. 1576, d. abt. 1611) one could think from this family did the names of two of Balthasar Mercer's daughters derive from. But until now all this is only a speculation. By the way, the mentioned Patrick Agnew, Elizabeth Kennedy's possible uncle, or his son Andrew was another M.P. in the parliament from 1644 to 1647 (as "The Sheriff of Galloway" [Agnew, Laird of Lochnaw, Wigtownshire]). [36]
If Elizabeth' descent from the Kennedies of Culzean was true she also would have prominent ancestors: The mentioned Sir Thomas Kennedy was the second son of Gilbert Kennedy (1515-1558), the 3rd earl of Cassillis who leads us to many Scottish, English, Irish and French kings, Welsh princes etc. [37]
v) Mercer's Mission to Hamburg
Mercer is said to have been a "favourite" of King Charles I. This has probably a broader sense for the important diplomatic
missions mentioned by Lucae cannot be verified. We should like to know more about his mission to Hamburg that must have taken place in the 1630s or 1640s. Now the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe stayed in Hamburg from 8 April 1638 to 2 June 1640 to take part in peace conferences - the Thirty Years' War was to end - and represent his country to the Hanse. But this mission was a pure English, not a Scottish matter. [38]
vi) After the Emigration to Bremen
After his flight to Bremen Balthasar Mercer seems not to have worked as a merchant any longer. [39] He did not become a burgess of this Hanse town, either, and in the tax lists of the St Stephen quarter the family does not appear before 1668 (!) with "S[elig] Baltzer Mertzers witwe" whose assessment amounts to 36 Groot (?). [40] Therefore we find Mercer really was a political refugee and came not to Bremen for business reasons like most of his countrymen. Actually he died in the end of April or in the beginning of May, 1650 and was buried at St Stephen Churchyard (St. Stephani Kirchhof) shortly before 3 May 1650: It was on this day that the burial account book of the Calvinistic St Stephen Church shows 22 Marks and 16 Groots as receipt because of the burial of "Balthaßar Merßell": [41]
Burial account book of St Stephen Church, Bremen
3 May 1650: "wegen S[elig] Balthaßar Merßell 22 [Mark], 16 [Groot]"
Compared with the average amount paid for a burial this a very considerable sum - Lucae is right when he points out his
father-in-law's wealth - and according to this the gravestone may have been splendid (the St Stephen Churchyard was totally destroyed in the bombings of World War II but nobody knows if Mercer's grave still existed at this time at all).
It seems none of Balthasar und Elizabeth Mercer's six children was born after the flight because no baptism is mentioned in the church books of Bremen. But "Archibalt Mertzers Kindt" died in Bremen in the beginning of March, 1653 as a registration from 8 March 1653 shows (the burial cost 9 Marks). [42] This unnamed child must be identical with the third son that still lived when his father died but is not mentioned by Lucae so far as his later life is concerned. Elizabeth Mercer's death can be proved, too: Her family
likewise paid 9 Marks for the burial of "Balser mesters wedewe" to the St Stephen Church on 9 February 1660. [43]
Obviously there had already been relations in Scotland between the Mercer family and the Scottish merchant Magnus
Wilson (Wulßen) (b. abt. 1620/30, d. 1681) who came to Bremen at the latest in 1651. (He may be identical with Magnes Wilsoun who was baptized in Canongate, Midlothian, Scotland on 29 August 1630 as the son of Hendrie Wilsoun and Katrein Hamiltoune. [44]) On 11 November 1656 Wilson became father of a son. "It is revealing (...) that Balthasar Merser's widow appears as godmother. As this Merser, as mentioned above, in 1634 treated as George Bruce's 'servant' with the Senate of Bremen for a salt shipment contract there may have existed a contact via his widow between Magnus Wulßen and the earl of Kincardine [i. e. Alexander
Bruce, Sir George's son]. This supposition is confirmed by the fact that Wulßen made 'Balthasar Meßers' (!) tomb be transferred to his name in 1678 which even implicates affinities between them. Like Merser (...) Wulßen was buried in St Stephen in 1681. Possibly Wulßen came as the Scottish noble's business
contact to Bremen. There he became a member of the Skippers' Brotherhood in 1656 and in 1658 he also took the burgess oath. He undertook several business travels by ship, mostly to Scotland. (...)" [45]
As in 1678 no member of the Mercer family still lived in Bremen it is understandable that Magnus Wulßen, the family's relative or close friend cared for their tombs. Now Balthasar Mercer died in 1650 and Wulßen can be traced in Bremen not before 1651 so one could think Magnus
Wilson / Wulßen came here not only as the Bruce family's manager but as Mercer's direct successor. This is not totally impossible but a corresponding occupation of Mercer between abt. 1645 and 1650 cannot be proved until now. Concerning the question if the both Scottish merchants were
related it is desirable that church book and other researches in Scotland will bring clearness.
What we know for sure however is that there were at least business relations between Elizabeth (Kennedy) Mercer and the Scottish merchant William Grison in Hamburg. She loaned him the amount of 1000 Thalers which her son-in-law Friedrich Lucae reclaimed 18 years after her death. Until now we donot know much about William Grison (who may be identified with William Griersone of Bargaltoun who was an M.P. for the Kirkcudbright Stewartry in 1641, 1644-47 and 1648-49 [45a]) but it is revealing that the emigrant and royalist Alexander Bruce stayed with Grison in 1658 after having been in Bremen for one year (see viii). What is more, we know of Bruce's activities on the continent in the late 1650s to raise money for Charles II. Maybe Elizabeth Mercer and William Grison were involved in such projects, too?
One more family in Bremen Balthasar and Elizabeth Mercer were close friends with were the Formanoirs as Friedrich Lucae reports. [46] We know that J.U.D. Lubbert (Lubertus) Formanoir (1634-1696), [47] since 1668 councillor in Bremen and since 1682 mayor, stayed in friendly contact with Balthasar's daughter Elizabeth Mercer and her husband Friedrich Lucae and stood also godfather to Karl Lucae in 1677. And Formanoir's wife Lucia was a cousin of Anton Günther Heilersieg [48] who went from Bremen to Hesse and became a protégé and close friend of Friedrich Lucae.
The Formanoir family had come from the Southern Netherlands to Bremen in the middle of the 16th century, probably from Tournai or Antwerp. The father of the above mentioned Lubbert was Diedrich Formanoir who had become a member of the merchant's cooperation ("Krameramt") of Bremen in 1625. He married Catharina (or Christine) Glandorp, a daughter of Dr. med. Ludwig Glandorp in Cologne and sister-in-law of the painter Simon Peter Tilemann who also painted his nephew Lubbert by order of Diedrich Formanoir. [48a] We donot know if the Formanoirs also took part in the salt trade with Scotland [48b] but perhaps Balthasar Mercer had commercial relations with Diedrich Formanoir at least after the emigration.
Last not least from 1659 to 1674 there lived a descendant of the Mercers of Aldie in Bremen: Wilhelm (William) Bonar (b. Rossie, Scotland January 1614, d. Bremen 2 April 1674) [49] who had been a Swedish officer in Germany from 1623 (1633?) until 1654, at last as governor of Vechta near Bremen. In the State Library of Bremen there exists a funeral sermon on the occasion of William Bonar's death which mentions that his great-grandfather John Bonar of Rossie had married "Margarethe Mersser", daughter of Laurence Mercer of Aldie and Meikleour [50] who was also the great-grandfather of the above mentioned Sir James Mercer of Aldie (d. 1671) (see iii). If there was any contact between William Bonar and his probable distant relatives in Bremen, the Mercers, in the 1660s?
vii) Balthasar's Brother (?): Rev. Robert Mercer
A Scottish court preacher named Robert Mercer has not been found so far - not at all as a (prominent) refugee in Bremen. But in the same period there lived a Reverend Robert Mercer (d. 1682) [51] in Scotland who is of some interest for us. He was at first chaplain of William 3rd Lord Cransto(u)n and then since 1652 parson of Kennoway (co. Perth). Since 1648 Lord Cranston [52] appeared as one of the most loyal supporters of the Stuarts in Scotland. In 1651 he accompanied Charles II to England but was imprisoned at the battle of Worcester and brought to the Tower of London where he spended some years. So a temporary flight of the cleric sounds quite possible but it cannot have taken place before 1651.
We donot know so far if Balthasar Mercer's brother (or simply: relative?) and the parson of Kennoway are one and the same person. But it is revealing that Friedrich Lucae, too, was a Calvinistic court preacher which may have effected on his information about his uncle by marriage. By the way, Reverend Robert Mercer directly descents from the above
mentioned Sir Michael Mercer.
viii) Alexander Bruce in Bremen and Hamburg
The Bruce family from Culross, too, belonged to the special loyals: Alexander Bruce [53] (d. 1680), the second son of Sir George Bruce of Carnock (see ii) had to flee of Cromwell and first of all he went to - Bremen where he stayed in the White Swann inn in 1657 and 1658: "His stay in the 'White Swann' in 1657 (...) might be explained with his business relations to merchants in Bremen." [54] Surely he also contacted Mercer's widow and her children there. He was extremely ill with ague before he left Bremen for Hamburg in 1658 where he stayed at the house of the Scotsman William Grison. Then Bruce went to the Hague where he married a wealthy Dutch lady before he returned to Culross after the Restoration in 1660. By advancing money while abroad he already had been of great service to King Charles II so now he became a prominent statesman as a member of the Scottish privy council. In 1662 he also succeeded his elder brother Edward as 2nd earl of Kincardine.
In addition Alexander Bruce was "a man of deep personal religion, of highly refined tastes, and of very wide attainments: medicine, chemistry, classics, mathematics, mechanical appliances of every kind, especially as adapted to his mining enterprises, divinity, heraldry, horticulture, forestry, pisciculture, mining, and the management of estates" [55] as is proved by his correspondence (beginning in 1657) with his countryman Sir Robert Moray [56] (d. 1673), one of the founders of the Royal Society and also a Privy Councillor. Perhaps the correspondence between these two interesting men also mentions anything about Bruce's relations to the Mercer family? (100 years ago the originals of this correspondence were in the possession of the Bruce family, earls of Elgin and Kincardine. Perhaps they are still owned by the current Lord Bruce, the earl of Elgin and Kincardine, of Abbey House, Culross ...)
ix) The Genealogical Relation with Oliver Cromwell
Mercer's eldest daughter did not marry "a sisters's son of
Cromwell in London of the noble Cleipold family" but her brother-in-law John Claypoole [57] was the husband of Elizabeth Cromwell [58], the Lord-Protector's favourite daugther. So a genealogical relation Mercer - Cromwell does only exist indirectly but it is remarkable how this marriage united the dictator's supporters and opponents (what would Balthasar Mercer have thought about his daughter's marriage if he still had been living?) [59]:
|
Oliver Cromwell |
John Baronet Claypoole |
Balthasar Mercer | |
|
|
|_____________ |
_____________ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It is also remarkable that the American Mercer descendant David C. Claypoole who lived abt. 1800 was "supposed to have been a descendant from Oliver Cromwell, whom he is said to have resembled in feature" [60] - but Cromwell, of course, was not his direct ancestor. "The American branch of the Claypoole family long had a tradition of lineal descent from Oliver Cromwell, but toward the close of the last century Mrs. Graff, in her genealogy of the family, proved conclusively that the connection with the Protector was not direct but collateral." [61]
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), portrait by Sir Peter Lely
Mercer's Children
i) Helen Mercer and James Claypoole
James Claypoole descents from a family of the English landed gentry which owned Norborough Manor in Northhamptonshire. He is a descendant of King Edward I of England [62] and is also a close relative of William Cecil, lord Burghley, the famous Prime Minister of Queen Elizabeth I (Burghley's sister was one of Claypoole's great-grandmothers). While his father and brother were strong supporters of Oliver Cromwell James, who was born in London in 1634, was obviously not that interested in politics. "As the fifth son, James had no share in the family properties and apparently no taste for a military career. He was sent, perhaps around 1650 when he was sixteen, to be apprenticed to a merchant in Bremen. He learned the language sufficiently well so that in later life his letters to Hamburg and Bremen were written in German." [63] We donot know the name of the merchant in Bremen but anyway Claypoole there got to know Helen Mercer who, like him, seems to have been born in 1634.
Claypoole himself wrote about the marriage: "I, James Claypoole and Helena Mercer were Joyned in Marriage the 12 day 12 month 1657/58 at Bremen in Germany by Cornelius Lelius, a Calvin[ist] Minister." [64] Indeed their marriage took place at St Paul's Church in Bremen on 12 February 1658 - "the 12 day 12 month 1657/58" means a special Quaker code. [65] The original church book does no longer exist but in 1935 a catalogue of the marriage records, including original quotations, was published. There we found that "James Cleypoel auß Engelland" (James Claypoole from England) married "Jungfr[au] Helena Mercers" (spinster Helen Mercer), "Sel[ig] Balthasar Mercers, gewesen[en] Bürgermeisters in Schottland, hinterl[assene] ehel[iche] To[chter]" (posthumous legitimate daughter of the late Balthasar Mercer, former mayor in Scotland) on 12 February 1658. [66] James and Helen Claypoole were married by Johann Conrad Laelius, Calvinistic parson at St Paul's Church since 1639. [67]
Shortly after the marriage James Claypoole returned to London with his wife where he established himself as a succesful merchant. By the way, Helen seems to have already been pregnant when marrying because her first child John was born just seven months later ... In 1661 the Claypooles became Quakers and William Penn and George Fox were frequent visitors at their London house. James and Helen were also present at Penn's wedding in 1672.
Being more and more persecuted in England, since 1682 the Quakers emigrated to Pennsylvania which William Penn wanted to become a state of pacifism and religious freedom. James Claypoole sent his eldest son John to Philadelphia with the ship "Amity" which left England on 23 April 1682. John was the assistant and clerk of Captain Thomas Holme whom Penn had made one of his comissioners of the Province and his surveyor-general. Under his father's directions John built a house on the lot on the "Banks", Front Street, Philadelphia which on the arrival of the rest of the family was 40 feet long by 20 broad.
In 1683 also 13 Quaker families from Krefeld, Germany decided to emigrate, and it was James Claypoole who had to find a ship for his brothers and sisters. He did it with great passionateness and chartered the "Concord". [68] At the same time he arranged his own measures to be able to emigrate together with his wife, seven children and four servants. After an easy passage of ten and a half weeks the "Concord" arrived in Philadelphia on 8 October 1683. In his family bible James Claypoole wrote: "We sat Saile from gravesend the 25 5 mo[nth] 1683 and Arrived at philadelphia in pennsylvania 8 8 mo[nth] 1683. We came in the ship called the Concord Captain Jeffrys Commder burthen 550 tuhn." [69]
The "Concord" with which the Claypooles came to
Pennsylvania in 1683 (German stamp from 1983)
Claypoole had bought 5000 acres from Penn in 1681 and now he settled in a colony at Germantown. He resided in Philadelphia where he was a succesful merchant (he was extensively engaged in the shipping trade, having his brother Edward as his foreign agent) and a prominent citizen (the house John had begun to erect was the city's first brick home!). Still taking an active role in Quaker affairs he was the first man after William Penn to subscribe to the Charter of Pennsylvania. Claypoole acted as treasurer of the Free Society of Traders of Pennsylvania and as judge in the Provincial Court. He also was a member of the Governor's Council and Assembly as well as of the Assembly for Sussex County along with his brother Norton who had already emigrated in 1678 (via Barbados and New York). James Claypoole died in Philadelphia on 6 August 1687, being followed by his wife Helen on 19 August 1688. Their descendants were much esteemed in New England.
ii) Thomas Mercer
On 20 June 1682 ("20th, 4th mo., 1682") James Claypoole from London wrote a letter to the prominent Quaker Robert Barclay ("Dear Friend Robert Barclay") who lived near Aberdeen. This letter ends with the sentence: "My dear love to my cousin Thomas Mercer when thou sees him." [70] This indicates that Claypoole's father-in-law Balthasar Mercer too derives from the family in Aberdeen of this name.
It is unlikely that he was the same Thomas Mercer in Aberdeen who married a woman named Margaret Gregorie with whom he had six children who were born between 1659 and 1674. [71]
Robert Barclay (1648-1690) [72], author of the "Apology for the True Christian Divinity ... Preached by the People, Called, in Scorn, Quakers", had become a Quaker in 1666 and began to publish religious pamphlets in 1670. Like James Claypoole he was a friend of William Penn and together with George Keith and others he accompanied him in 1677 to Holland and Germany. There he also got to know Princess Elizabeth of Palatinate who supported the Quakers and corresponded with Penn and him. After his return from this journey Barclay was imprisoned in Aberdeen together with his father and a number of other quakers. It was Princess Elizabeth who made the officials let them free.
Perhaps Thomas Mercer was one of those who were imprisoned in 1677. What we know for sure is at least that in October 1678 he was sent to prison because of his belief: In a letter to Sarah Fell from 27 October 1678 ("27th of 8th month 1678") Robert Barclay wrote: "I have been a prisoner since I left thy sister, but was kept only two nights. P.L. [Patrick Livingstone] has been out and in again. G.K. [George Keith] and Thos. Mercer were taken this day week." [73]
Thomas Mercer already appeared as an active Quaker in 1675. On 14 April 1675 there was a religious dispute between George Keith and Robert Barclay with some considerable members of the university of Aberdeen. Afterwards the Quakers published a pamphlet with the long title
"A true and faithful account of the most material passages of a dispute between some students of divinity (so called) of the university of Aberdeen, and the people called Quakers, held in Aberdeen in Scotland, in Alexander Harper his close (or yard) before some hundred of witnesses, upon the 14th day of the second month, called April, 1675, there being John Lesly, Alexander Sherreff, and Paul Gellie master of arts, opponents; and desendants upon the Quakers' part, Robert Barclay and George Keith: praeses for moderating the meeting, chosen by them, Andrew Thompson advocate; and by the quakers Alexander Skein, some time a magistrate of the city: published for preventing misreports by Alexander Skein, John Skein, Alexander Harper, Thomas Merser, and John Cowie; to which is added, Robert Barclay's offer to the preachers of Aberdeen, renewed and reinforced." [74]
In 1670 Robert Barclay had married Christian Mollison, daughter of a merchant in Aberdeen, and since then he lived in Ury, Aberdeenshire. He was strongly commited with the colonization of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1682 he was elected as governor of East New Jersey but did not settle there himself like his brother John did. He died in Ury in 1690. Did Thomas Mercer also stay in Scotland until his death or did he emigrate to New England? [75] We donot know it until now. The last thing we hear about him is the mention in his "cousin's" James Claypoole's letter from 1682.
It is also very interesting that Thomas Mercer was acquainted with George Keith (1638?-1716) [76] from Aberdeen who like Barclay published various pamphlets: In the same letter from 20 June 1682 to Barclay James Claypoole wrote: "If thou orders it to G[eorge] Keith may be as well, for I have a child with him, and must pay him money." [77] Keith had recently taken over the school at Edmonton near Aberdeen, and Claypoole's son (and Thomas Mercer's nephew) who was a pupil there must have been the ten-year-old Nathaniel. [78] (His older brother Samuel Claypoole seems also to have been Barclay's pupil as he died in Edmonton on 11 January 1681, eight days before his tenth birthday.) What is more, Nathaniel and his brother Joseph Claypoole later followed Keith when he separated from William Penn and founded the so-called Christian Quakers in the 1690s. Since 1682 Keith lived in East New Jersey where he was surveyor-general.
iii) Elizabeth Mercer and Friedrich Lucae
After her mother's death in 1660 Elizabeth Mercer, the middle daughter, lived with the widow of Doctor Schnelle in Bremen (probably the widow of J.U.D. Conrad Schnell(e) [1609-1658], since 1641 professor at the "Gymnasium Illustre" and since 1647 councillor in Bremen [78a]). Then Elizabeth got to know the wife of Jacob Freiherr von Schleepusch (d. 1676) [79], a colonel and landowner near Bremen, and with them she went to their estate Klein-Pollwitz near Liegnitz, Silesia (now Poland) as playmate of Schleepusch's daughter. She was in good esteem with the Schleepusch family and almost treated like their own daughter. Then she got to know her later-on husband Friedrich Lucae ...
Friedrich Lucae (1644-1708)
Born in Brieg, Silesia as the son of the classical school's headmaster in 1644, Friedrich Lucae [80] had attended the universities of Heidelberg as well as of Nijmwegen, Utrecht and Leiden. In 1671 he became Calvinistic court preacher in Liegnitz. In the same year 1675 when he married Elizabeth Mercer Duke George William of Liegnitz-Brieg died as the last member of his family, the old House of Piast. Soon the Habsburgs took possession of the dukedom and opressed the Calvinistic confession. Lucae and his wife had to emigrate - for her it was already for the second time.
Johann Kunsch (1620-1681), [81] a former pupil of Lucae's father and now court preacher of the elector of Brandenburg, recommended him to the Duchess Hedwig Sophie of Hesse-Cassel, and in the spring of 1676 Friedrich Lucae and his wife travelled to Cassel. During this strenuos journey Elizabeth unfortunately had a miscarriage. [82] The plan to make Lucae become court preacher of the Duke of Curland came to nothing so he stayed in Hesse. There he occupied various high ministries until his death, at last in Rotenburg an der Fulda. Furthermore Lucae was a then well-known writer and historian and wrote e.g. several books about German dynasties.
Still in 1675 Elizabeth and Friedrich Lucae travelled to Bremen to fetch her furnitures which still stood with Mrs Schnell. In this year for the first time they also visited her sister and brother-in-law in Wanfried who had already visited them in Cassel. [83] Both sisters and their families now lived in Hesse so they were able to see sometimes. By the way, among the members of the princely household Lucae and his wife were acquainted with the princely lady teacher Mrs von Wallenstein (abt. 1618-1692) [84] who was also of Scottish descent and therefore esteemed her fellow-countrywoman Elizabeth (Mercer) Lucae. [85] And Princess Charlotte of Palatinate presented her with a case with a gilded spoon, knife and fork. [86]
Elizabeth Lucae still owned a bond of the merchant William Grison in Hamburg whom her mother Elizabeth (Kennedy) Mercer had loaned the amount of 1000 Thalers. In 1678 Friedrich Lucae went to Hamburg to reclaim this sum from Grison. [87] The information he obtained concerning Grison were very bad and after all he only got 171 Thalers back. Lucae shared this sum (after the deduction of his travelling expenses) together with his brother-in-law Uckermann - and only with him! This indicates that there was no more contact between Balthasar Mercer's children in Germany on the one hand and those in England and Scotland on the other hand. Lucae and his wife obviously did not hear anything about the emigration of the Claypooles to Pennsylvania, either, because Lucae does not mention it in his autobiography. But when Karl, the eldest of three children of Elizabeth (Mercer) and Friedrich Lucae, was born in 1677 among the godparents were the Duke of Hesse-Cassel and Lubertus Formanoir, mayor in Bremen, an old friend of the Mercer family. [88] The Lucaes stayed good friends with the Formanoirs.
Elizabeth Lucae became severely ill in 1685 as she suffered of the "Steinkrankheit", i.e. she had kidney or gall-stones which according to her husband's report was a hereditary disease in her family. [89] (Perhaps this fact will be helpful one day to find out Balthasar or Elizabeth Mercer's exact descent?) She vomitted continously, did not have any appetite and was in horrible pain. She died on 4 February 1686 and when she was buried the sermon was held by Friedrich Lucae's colleague Vietor. Elizabeth herself had chosen psalm 38, verse 23. Jost Christoph and Margaret Elizabeth (Mercer) Uckermann had come from Wanfried and took place in the funeral. [90]
Friedrich Lucae wrote a very lively autobiography - he was a curious and good observer - which was kept in his family for five generations and published by his descendant of the same name in 1854. This book is still worth reading and especially when Lucae writes lovably about his (first) wife one realizes that the contemporaries of the Baroque not necessarily were insensible.
iv) Margaret Elizabeth Mercer and Jost Christoph Uckermann
In the Early Modern Times there was an intensive trade between Bremen and Wanfried, Hesse: As the starting-point of the shipping traffic on the River Werra Wanfried was an important transfer point for Thuringia and Bavaria. The favourite articles transshipped in Wanfried were coffee, sugar, oil, spices, tobacco, woollen wares, wine, honey and fish. In these days handsome houses were erected in Wanfried which still exist. [91] What is now the townhall of Wanfried used to be the house of the Uckermanns, a prominent and wealthy family of merchants.
"Auf der Schlagd": The old custom-house in Wanfried
The Uckermanns are said to have come from Bremen originally. And J.U.Lic. Jakob Wilhelm Uckermann (1648-1689) who became a civil servant in Cassel e.g. attended the famous Calvinistic "Gymnasium Illustre zu Bremen" from 19 October 1665 until abt. 1667 [92], being not the only pupil of this school from Wanfried.
He was one of the sons of Dethard Uckermann (abt. 1618-1698) [93], merchant and mayor in Wanfried. Another son was Jost Christoph Uckermann (abt. 1646-1701), merchant, councillor and church-warden in Wanfried, who would marry Balthasar Mercer's youngest daughter Margaret Elizabeth. It is unknown who arranged the contact between the Uckermanns and the Mercers in Bremen (perhaps the Formanoirs or the widow of Doctor Schnell?). What we know is that Margaret Elizabeth (Mercer) and Jost Christoph Uckermann married before 19 October 1669: On this day the church book of Wanfried mentions her as a godmother. But until now the marriage has been found neither in Bremen nor in Wanfried.
It is also worth mentioning that Uckermann's maternal grandmother Elisabeth Scheffer (1607-1671), widow of Jost Christoph Boppenhausen, in 1667 went to Copenhagen with her second husband Georg Hein (whom she had married in 1651) where they served for Crown Princess Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Certainly they were acquainted with the above mentioned Scotswoman Mrs von Wallenstein who served with Princess Charlotte in Copenhagen from 1667 to 1669 and from 1677 to 1692. [94]
Margaret Elizabeth (Mercer) and Jost Christoph Uckermann had seven or eight children (among them Johann Balthasar who was baptized in Wanfried on 28 January 1679 as Balthasar Mercer's only grandson who was named after him). In the beginning of April, 1689 Margaret Elizabeth died, being the last surviving daughter - and perhaps also the only child still living - of Balthasar Mercer. The church book of Wanfried says: "den 8. Aprilis [1689]. Ist H. Jost Christoff Ückermans Haus Frau, Frau Margaretha gebohrne Mertzerin begraben und alt worden 44. Jahre, 6. Monat und 5. Tage." [95]
What is interesting is the story of her sister-in-law Katharina Elisabeth Uckermann (1667-after 1705). She married Henrich Wetzell (1651-1697) [96], parson in Sontra near Eschwege, Hesse (who had also attended the Gymnasium Illustre zu Bremen). After her husband's death she became a prominent member of the "Philadelphier" sect of D. theol. Heinrich Horche (1652-1729) [97] and lived an unsteady life. [98] The sect's name derives from Horche's (unfulfilled) plan in 1702 to emigrate to Philadelphia with his supporters - Pennsylvania then was well-known in Europe for its tolerance. But as we saw the Lucaes and Uckermanns obviously did not learn that the Claypooles had emigrated to Pennsylvania. Thus, there cannot have been a relation between Katharina Elisabeth (Uckermann) Wetzel and her late sister-in-law's relatives in Philadelphia.
Anyway the recollection of a Scottish lady survived in Wanfried for 100 years: A local tradition knows Martha Rosina Uckermann (1745-1794), who married lieutenant general Friedrich Konrad Freiherr Wolff von und zur Todenwarth (1735-1809) in 1763, as the "Princess of Wanfried". [99] Very obviously the origin of this legend is the mysterious descent of her great-grandmother Margaret Elizabeth Mercer, daughter of the late Balthasar Mercer from Scotland ...
Mercer's Descendants
Let us now record the sure genealogical information about Balthasar Mercer, his wife, children and grandchildren (the confession is generally Presbyterian respectively Calvinistic while the Claypooles are Quakers) as well as
some short information about their prominent descendants:
Mercer, Archibald / Balthasar, b. in Scotland abt. 1600, merchant burgess and mayor (?) of Culross near Dunfermline, business agent of Sir George Bruce of Carnock, 1639-41 and 1644/45 M.P. for the Royal Burgh of Culross, bur. at St Stephen Churchyard, Bremen shortly before 3 May 1650; m. in Scotland abt. 1630 Elizabeth Kennedy (of noble descent), b. in Scotland abt. 1610, bur. at St Stephen Churchyard, Bremen shortly before 9 February 1660
-
children:
a.) Mercer, Helen(a), b. (Culross) abt. 1634, d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19 August 1688; m. at St Paul's Church, Bremen, Germany 12 February 1658 James Claypoole, b. London 8 October 1634, merchant in London and since 1683 in Philadelphia, d. ibid. 6 August 1687
- children:
i. Claypoole, John, b. Nicholas Lane, London 15 September 1658, sheriff in Philadelphia, d. ibid. 8 August 1700; m. before 1687 Mary Castle, d. after 1687
ii. Claypoole, Mary, b. Mensing Lane, London 14 August 1660, d. Philadelphia in May 1726; m. ibid. 11 November 1688 Francis Cooke, b. ... , d. (ibid.) in August 1687
iii. Claypoole, Helen(a), b. Scots Yard near London Stone, London 6 September 1662, d. on Barbados ... 1691; m. Philadelphia 2 February 1688 William Bethell, Bricklayer of Amboy
iv. Claypoole, James Jr., b. Scots Yard 12 June 1664, d. New Castle, Delaware ... 1706 or 6 July 1694; m. 1stly Elizabeth NN; m. 2ndly Mary Cann
v. Claypoole, Priscilla, b. Scots Yard 25 February 1666, d. Philadelphia 16 October 1698; m. ... Dr John Crappe
vi. Claypoole, Nathaniel, b. Signe of the Still upon Horsly Downe in the Southward, England 23 July 1668, d. before 1672
vii. Claypoole, Josiah, b. London 9 September 1669, d. Kingston upon Thames, England 2 March 1670
viii. Claypoole, Samuel, b. Scots Yard 19 January 1671, d. Edmonton, Scotland 11 January 1681
ix. Claypoole, Nathaniel, b. Scots Yard 4 August 1672, d. Philadelphia 21 December 1730; m. Elizabeth NN, d. Philadelphia 14 August 1714
Descendants are e.g.:
* Julia Ann Claypoole, m. Isaac Freeman Rasin (1833-1907), merchant in Baltimore, politician (D)
* Helen Ringgold Rasin (abt. 1875-after 1925), m. Hugo Albert Rennert, Ph. D. (b. 1858-after 1925), hispanist, professor at the University of Philadelphia
* John Freeman Rasin, m. Alice (Montague) Warfield whose daughter Wallis (Warfield) Simpson m. Edward VIII (1894-1972), 1936 King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Emperor of India, afterwards Duke of Windsor
x. Claypoole, NN, stillborn at abt. the end of 1673
xi. Claypoole, George, b. Scots Yard 14 November 1674, d. Philadelphia 21 December 1730; m. 1stly Mary Righton; m. 2ndly Martha Hoskins; m. 3rdly Debora Hardeman
xii. Claypoole, Joseph, b. Scots Yard 29 January 1676, d. Lambeth, England 30 June 1676
xiii. Claypoole, Joseph, b. Scots Yard 14 May 1677, First Warden of Christ Church in Philadelphia, large property owner, d. Philadelphia 3 May 1744; m. 1stly Charleston, South Carolina 20 July 1703 Rebecca Jennings, d. (Philadelphia) 30 November 1715; m. 2ndly at Christ Church, Philadelphia 4 April 1716 Edith Ward, d. Philadelphia 13 January 1737
Descendants are e.g.:
* James Claypoole (1720/21-abt. 1796), painter, High Sheriff of Philadelphia during the Revolution
* David C. Claypoole (1756/57-1849), printer in Philadelphia (he published the first daily U.S. newspaper)
* Newton Claypool(e) (abt. 1793-1866), Indianian politician (R), representative and senator for several times
* Mary Claypoole, m. James Peale (1749-1831), painter in Philadelphia, captain, and their famous children
* Elizabeth Claypoole, m. Timothy Matlack (abt. 1735-1829), merchant in Philadelphia, colonel, member of the Continental Congress
* Charles Edward Marsh (1887-1964), newspaper publisher, Texanian politician (D), friend of L. B. Johnson
* Alice Claypoole Gwynne (1845-1934), m. Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899), railroad tycoon, industrialist, philanthropist, and their famous children
* Cornelius Vanderbilt III (1873-1942), railroad tycoon, banker, brigadier general
* William Henry Vanderbilt III (1901-1981), banker, politician, 1938-40 Governor of Rhode Island
* Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt (b. 1924), businesswoman (Gloria Vanderbilt jeans/parfume)
* Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875?-1942), sculptress, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in 1930/31, m. Harry Payne Whitney (1872-1930), banker
* Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (1899-1992), industrialist, founder of Pan Am, U.S. air force major, Maecenas
* Daniel James Hatfield Finch-Hatton (b. 1967), 17th earl of Winchilsea and 12th earl of Nottingham
xiv. Claypoole, Elizabeth, b. Scots Yard 25 May 1678, d. London 31 May 1678
b.) Mercer, NN (a son), b. (Culross) abt. 1635/40 (before 1641), went to India or the Canary Islands, or identical with the son who was bur. at St Stephen Churchyard, Bremen shortly before 8 March 1653
c.) Mercer, Thomas, bapt. Culross 26 September 1641, went to India or the Canary Islands, became afterwards a Quaker in Aberdeen, Scotland, d. (ibid.?) after 20 June 1682
d.) Mercer, NN (a son), bapt. Culross 8 September 1642, went to India or the Canary Islands, or identical with the son who was bur. at St Stephen Churchyard, Bremen shortly before 8 March 1653
e.) Mercer, Elizabeth, b. (Culross) (before 1644, perhaps 1643), d. Cassel, Hesse 4 February 1686; m. Pollwitz near Liegnitz, Silesia 19 November 1675 Friedrich Lucae, b. Brieg, Silesia 2 August 1644, 1671-75 court preacher in Liegnitz, 1676-85 metropolitan of Cassel-Neustadt, 1685-92 court preacher in Cassel, 1692-94 parish councillor and school inspector in Siegen, Hesse, 1694-96 metropolitan of Spangenberg, Hesse, 1696-1708 metropolitan of Rotenburg, Hesse, d. ibid. 14 May 1708; he m. 2ndly Cassel 21 July 1687 Elisabeth Louise von Wesenbeck, b. abt. 1655, d. Rotenburg 26 December 1699 (45 years old)
children:
i. Lucae, Karl, b. Cassel 3 November 1677, in 1699 Juris Utriusque Consultus in Rinteln, since 1704 actuarius and later auditeur in Ziegenhain, Hesse, writer, d. (Ziegenhain) in 1712; m. ... 28 May 1704 Sophie Charlotte Touissant (one son and one daughter)
Descendants are e.g.:
* Dr. med. Samuel Christian Lucae (1787-1821), professor at the Universities of Heidelberg and Marburg
* Dr. med. Gustav Lucae (1814-1885), professor at the Senckenberg Medical Institute in Frankfurt, Hesse
* Dr. jur. Friedrich Lucae (1815-1859), lawyer and writer in Frankfurt, published the autobiography of his ancestor of the same name in 1854
ii. Lucae, Hedwig Sophie, b. Cassel 5 April 1679, d. ... ; m. ... abt. 1700 Mag. Georg Herrmann Rübenkönig alias Istrut, b. Homberg, Hesse in December 1666, 1692/93 privat tutor with a nobleman in Geneva, Switzerland and then with a young lord von Dersch, afterwards court preacher of the countess of Eulenburg, then principal at the school of Homberg, then parson of Nassenerfurth and trockenerfurth, Hesse, since 1714 parson of Homberg, d. Homberg ... 1740
iii. Lucae, Lucie Henriette, b. Cassel 13 July 1683, d. ibid. 26 March 1685
f.) Mercer, Margaret Elizabeth, b. (Culross?) (abt. 3 October 1644), bur. Wanfried, Hesse 8 April 1689 (44 years, 6 months, 5 days old); m. ... (not in Bremen and not in Wanfried) before 19 October 1669 Jost Christoph Uckermann, b. Wanfried abt. 1646, merchant, councillor and churchwarden ibid., d. ibid. 7 January 1701; he m. 2ndly ibid. 19 July 1692 Susanna de Ahl, b. Frankfurt am Main, Hesse abt. 1648, d. Wanfried 20 October 1711
children:
i. (?) Uckermann, Jacob Wilhelm, b. (Wanfried) (abt. 1670), (merchant in Wanfried), d. (ibid.) after 1722; m. ibid. 7 July 1696 Johanna Thalmann (?), * (Frankfurt am Main) (abt. 1680), d. after 1722 (four sons, three daughters)
ii. Uckermann, Maria Juliana, bapt. Wanfried 25 May 1675, d. ...
iii. Uckermann, Friedrich (2nd son), bapt. Wanfried 20 September 1677, d. ...
iv. Uckermann, Johann Balthasar, bapt. Wanfried 28 January 1679, d. ...
v. Uckermann, Dethhard, bapt. Wanfried 24 October 1680, d. after 1721; m. ... NN (at least one son)
vi. Uckermann, Johann Jacob, bapt. Wanfried 7 (not 1) June 1682, merchant and mayor in Wanfried, d. Wanfried 23 November 1749; m. ibid. 4 May 1706 Anna Martha NN, b. ... abt. 1682, d. (Wanfried?) 3 December 1756 (?) (four sons, three daughters); she had m. 1stly Christoph Schleppe, merchant ibid., d. (ibid.) before 1706
Descendants are e.g.:
* Johann Jacob (Freiherr von) Uckermann (1718-1781), high civil servant, rich merchant and landowner, was nobilized in 1769 and baronized in 1770
* Johann Jacob Freiherr von Uckermann (1763-1836), major, private scholar, philanthropist; among his descendants are many high officers and wives of officers
* Dr. jur. Eckart Freiherr von Uckermann (b. 1945), until 2002 insurance company president in Hanover
* Martha Rosina Uckermann (1745-1794), m. Friedrich Konrad Freiherr Wolff von und zur Todenwarth (1735-1809), Hessian lieutenant general
* Johann Imanuel Uckermann (1776-1845), lithographer, printing-office owner and publisher in Erfurt, Thuringia, member of the Academy of Useful Sciences in Erfurt
* Elsbeth Leib (1879-1942), m. Richard Kiesewetter (1868-1945), shoe factory owner in Erfurt (the author's great-great-grandparents)
vii. Uckermann, Anton Günter, bapt. Wanfried 3 May 1686, d. ...
viii. (?) Uckermann, NN, b. ... , d. ...
Notes
This site is based on my article "Der schottische Bürgerkriegsflüchtling Balthasar Mercer († Bremen 1650) und seine Familie", published in: Genealogie, Deutsche Zeitschrift für Familienkunde, no. 7-8/1998, pp. 215-228 and no. 9-10/1998, pp. 297-305.
Abbreviations:
ABA = American Biographical Archive
ADB = Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
BBA = British Biographical Archive
DAB = Dictionary of American Biography
DBA = Deutsches Biographisches Archiv
DNB = Dictionary of National Biography
NDB = Neue Deutsche Biographie
[1]
From: Gustav FREYTAG, Pictures of German Life in the XVth, XVIth and XVIIthe Centuries, translated from the original by Mrs. MALCOLM, vol. 2, London 1862, pp. 266 f., cited in: Milton RUBINCAM, The Identity of Helena "Merces" (Mercer), Wife of James Claypoole (1634-1687), of Philadelphia, in: The American Genealogist, vol. 18 (1947), pp. 201-207, here: p. 204.
[2]
Originally Lucae wrote: "Die Jungfer Mercers [sic!] war die Tochter Herrn Balthasar Mercers, gewesenen Parlamentsassessor's zu Edinburg, in Schottland, welcher von König Carolo I. zu Engelland vielmals in wichtigen Commissionen verwendet, einst auch bei einer Sendung nach Hamburg dortselbst mit einer goldenen Ehrenmedaille gezieret worden war. Ihre Mutter, auch Elisabeth genannt, war adlichen Geschlechts gewesen, eine geborne von Kennewy aus Schottland. Als sich 1644 die gefährlichen Troublen zu Engelland herfürthäten, mußte sich ihr Herr Vater, wie auch sein Bruder, der königliche Hofprediger Robertus Mercers, weil sie Favoriten des enthaupteten Königs gewesen waren, aus Furcht vor dem Cromwell und seiner Parthei mit der ganzen Familie aus dem Königreich begeben, und zog mit den Seinigen nach Bremen, woselbst er von eigenen Mitteln, die ziemlich groß waren bis an sein seliges Ende, 1650 lebte, drei Söhne und drei Töchter seiner Wittwe, einer frommen gottseligen Matron hinterlassend. Die Söhne waren in die Welt gegangen. Einer davon nach Indien, Einer nach den Canaren Inseln, und von den Töchtern hatte sich die älteste in London an einen Schwestersohn Cromwells, des adlichen Geschlechts Cleipold, und die jüngste zu Wanfried in Hessen an einen Kaufmann namens Uckermann verheurathet; die mittlere war meine Liebste. Anno 1660 war in Bremen auch ihre Frau Mutter gestorben, und neben ihrem Herrn Vater in der Kirche zu St. Stephan beigesetzet worden [...]" (Friedrich LUCAE [ed.], Der Chronist Friedrich Lucae, Ein Zeit- und Sittenbild, Frankfurt am Main 1854, p. 200 f., also cited in: Gustav FREYTAG, Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit, vol. 3: Aus dem Jahrhundert des großen Krieges = Gesammelte Werke, Neue wohlfeile Ausgabe, series 2, vol. 6, Leipzig / Berlin 1915, p. 355 f.).
[3] LUCAE [2], p. 199 and 201.
[4] Karl Heinz SCHWEBEL, Salz im alten Bremen = Veröffentlichungen aus dem Staatsarchiv der Freien Hansestadt Bremen, vol. 56, Bremen 1988 (all translations into English by Kai DREWES).
[5] Hans-Friedrich VON EHRENKROOK, Meine Forschungsfahrt nach Wanfried a. d. Werra Ostern 1925, p. 56 f., in: Der Familienforscher, Monatsschrift für Familiengeschichte und Wappenkunde, vol. 2 (Mannheim 1926/27), pp. 53-59. VON EHRENKROOK also cites Lucae's autobiography (in the version of FREYTAG [2]).
[6] RUBINCAM ([1]).
[7] Kai DREWES, Der schottische Bürgerkriegsflüchtling Balthasar Mercer († Bremen 1650) und seine Familie, in: Genealogie, Deutsche Zeitschrift für Familienkunde, no. 7-8/1998, pp. 215-228 and no. 9-10/1998, pp. 297-305.
[8] Members of Parliament, vol. 2, part 1, London 1878 (reprinted Munich 1980).
[9] SCHWEBEL supposes so: "Bei dem in den Ratskorrespondenzen Merser verschiedentlich beigelegten Vornamen Archibald scheint es sich um einen Irrtum des Konzipienten zu handeln" (SCHWEBEL [4], p. 45, note 138). But in a letter to the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh from 15 October 1986 he asks for "Bruce's clerk Archibald (Balthasar?) Mercer". See SCHWEBEL's investigations for "Salz im alten Bremen" in the State Archive of Bremen (a carton with notes, still without signature).
[10] Members of Parliament [8], pp. 561 and 567.
[11] Ibid., p. 567.
[12] Notice also a merchant named Thomas Mercer who was executed "neere the Poultrey" (where is this?) on 27 May 1645 and the speech he had held shortly before his death was printed in London in the same year. See BLC = The British Library General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975, vol. 218, London 1983, p. 392.
[13] Members of Parliament ([8]), p. 567.
[14] Ibid.
[14a] Ibid., p. 561. His commission has not been found.
[14b] Ibid., p. 563.
[15] SCHWEBEL ([4]), p. 45, note 138, supposes that Balthasar Mercer had been busy for Sir George Bruce in Bremen continually since 1634.
[16] SCHWEBEL ([4]),
pp. 45 and 47.
[17] "It would appear that the most important salt pans in Fife in the early seventeenth century - those in Culross, Kirkcaldy, Torryburn and Tulliallan - were all invested in and developed by members of Edinburgh's merchandising circles rather than by local lairds" (Michael LYNCH [ed.], The Early Modern Town in Scotland, London 1987, p. 139).
Perhaps more about Balthasar Mercer and his activities can be found in J. BROWN, The Social, Political and Economic Influences of the Edinburgh Merchant Elite, 1600-38, University of Edinburgh Ph. D., 1985 and C. A. WHATLEY, That Important and
Necessary Article, The Salt Industry and its trade in Fife and Tayside, c1570-1850 (Abertay Historical Society Publications, no. 22, 1984).
[18] See BURKE'S Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, One Hundred and Third Edition, ed. by Peter TOWNEND, London 1963, p. 2093 and passim.
[19] "Finally, we have a computer textbase which covers about 25% of our catalogues to the private and estate papers held here. I searched this for any mention of Archibald Mercer, and came across the following entry:
| REFERENCE | GD 16/31/332 |
| DATES | [17 CENTURY] |
| DESCRIPTION | Letter from Archibald Mercer to Lord Ogilvie in London relating to financial business. [Seal affixed]. |
[20] "For his attachment to the royalist cause during the struggle between the court and the presbyterians, Charles I created him earl of Airlie by patent dated at York 2 April 1639. During the Scottish war he suffered severely, his estates being wasted and all his houses razed to the ground. [...] He went to court in April 1640 to avoid taking the covenant, but, returning to Scotland, was present in the covenanting parliament of 1643. In the following year he and his three sons joined Montrose; they were consequently forfeited by parliament on 11 February 1645, exempted from pardon in the treaty of Westminster, and excommunicated by the kirk on 27 July 1647. But having obtained on 23 July 1646 an assurance and remission from Major-general Middleton, who was authorised to pacify the north of Scotland in this way, parliament was obliged, though unwillingly, to rescind his forfeiture on 17 March 1647. He did not afterwards take any active part in public affairs, and died in 1666 (Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, viii, p. 227)" (DNB, vol. 42, p. 27 f.).
[21] See Members of Parliament ([8]), pp. 550, 551, 552 and 554.
[22] See www.familysearch.com (International Genealogical Index, © by the LDS Church). The marriage and burial records of Culross begin in 1640.
[23] Letter from Anne RODWELL from the Central Library, Dunfermline, Scotland to Kai DREWES, 13 August 1999.
[24] See www.familysearch.com (International Genealogical Index, © by the LDS Church).
[25] See ibid.
[26] Mail from Doug ANGUS to Kai DREWES, 22 October 1998.
[27] BBA 2, microfiche 1654, 402.
[28] The following information about the Mercer family bases on BURKE'S Landed Gentry of Great Britain. The Kingdom in Scotland, 19th Edition, ed. by Peter Beauclerc DEWAR, vol. 1, Chicago (Mich.) and London 2001, pp. 1014 ff. and BBA, microfiche 761, 375-381.
[29] More about him in Ranald NICHOLSON, The Later Middle Ages = The Edinburgh History of Scotland, vol. 2, Edinburgh 1974, pp. 153, 166 and 194 f.
[30] Ada's father obviously was Sir Andrew Murray of Tullibardine (b. abt. 1285, exec. 1332) who was a supporter of the Scottish rival king Edward Balliol. See DNB, vol. 39, p. 406.
[31] BBA, microfiche 761, 377 names Elizabeth' father Sir David Stewart of Durrisdeer which is wrong (see also Gerald PAGET, The Lineage and Ancestry of HRH Prince Charles, Edinburgh 1977, vol. ?, p. ?). However there was also another daughter of Sir Robert Stewart of Durrisdeer named Elizabeth which was married to William Douglas of Drumlanrig (d. 1427).
[32] See BBA 2, microfiche 1654, 374.
[33] BURKE ([18]), p. 557.
[33A] BALDERSTON ([63]), p. 123.
[33a] See www.familysearch.com (International Genealogical Index, © by the LDS Church).
[33b] See ibid. The first of the three children of Robert Merser and Isbell Collysone was Isbell Merser, bapt. Aberdeen (St Nicholas) 25 June 1587.
[33c] See ibid.
[34] See ibid.
[35] See ibid.
[36] Members of Parliament ([8]), p. 567.
[37] See the older genealogy of the Kennedies of Culzean in BURKE'S Landed Gentry ([28]), pp. 758 f. and at www.familysearch.com (International Genealogical Index, © by the LDS Church).
[38] See Gary M. BELL, A Handlist of British Diplomatic Representatives 1509-1688, London 1990, pp. 23 and 156. On 27 October 1632 there also was an audience for Robert Sidney (b. 1595, d. 1677), 2nd earl of Leicester (ibid., p. 156). Unfortunately BELL's register only includes English (not Scottish) diplomats and, what is more, merchants etc. are not listed who exercised diplomatic or consular functions. But Heinrich HITZIGRATH, Die politischen Beziehungen zwischen Hamburg und England zur Zeit Jacobs I., Karls I. und der Republik von 1611-1660, Berlin 1907, does not mention a pure Scottish mission to Hamburg, either.
[39] See Ruth PRANGE, Die bremische Kaufmannschaft des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in sozialgeschichtlicher Betrachtung = Veröffentlichungen aus dem Staatsarchiv der Freien Hansestadt Bremen, vol. 31, Bremen 1963, with a list of foreign merchants who settled down in Bremen in this period - the name Mercer does not appear. But this list is not comprehensive, and Magnus Wilson (see [45]) e.g. is not listed either.
[40] Account book of the St Stephen quarter in Bremen, 1668, p. 154. Unfortunately it is not clear what this enquiry really means (Christa LÜTJEN, genealogical association "Die Maus" in Bremen, letter to Kai DREWES, 28 October 1998). And Elizabeth (Kennedy) Mercer already died in 1660!
[41] Burial account book of St Stephen Church, Bremen, 1634-1655, p. 80.
[42] Ibid., p. 224.
[43] Burial account book of St Stephen Church, Bremen, 1656-1675, p. 916.
[44] See www.familysearch.com (International Genealogical Index, © by the LDS Church).
[45] SCHWEBEL ([4]), p. 55 (translated by Kai DREWES). More about Magnus Wilson's activities ibid., pp. 54-60 and passim. Genealogy of the Wilson / Wulßen family according to Karl-Heinz SCHWEBEL's investigations for "Salz im alten Bremen" ([9]):
Wilson(e) / Wulßen, Magnus, b. in Scotland abt. 1620/30, skipper in Bremen since abt. 1650, member of the Skippers' Brotherhood of Bremen since 30 July 1656, burgess of Bremen since 4 February 1658, bur. at St Stephen Churchyard, Bremen 12 May 1681; m. 1stly abt. 1655 Ahleke NN, perhaps daughter of Hermann Deetjen, skipper; m. 2ndly abt. 1669 Anna NN; m. 3rdly 6 March 1677 NN, bur. at St Martin, Bremen 5 February 1716
children:
a.) Wulßen, Hermann, b. Bremen (St Stephen) 11 November 1656, member of the Skippers' Brotherhood since 1691, burgess of Bremen since 20 June 1695, d. abt. 1721; m. 26 November 1693 Anna Cattow, daugther of Johann Cattow
children:
i. Wulßen, Johan, b. abt. 1695, burgess of Bremen since 5 February 1720, d. ...
ii. Wulßen, Magnus, b. abt. 1700, burgess of Bremen since 1 March 1734, d. ...
b.) Wulßen, Gesche, b. Bremen (St Stephen) 23 August 1660, d. ...
c.) Wulßen, Lena (Helena), b. Bremen (St Stephen) 8 October 1663, d. ... ; m. 1stly 28 May 1682 Evert Eiben; m. 2ndly 21 April 1693 Hinrich Siedenborg
d.) Wulßen, Gesche, b. Bremen (St Stephen) 8 February 1666, d. ... ; m. 13 November 1687 Henrich Harrla
e.) Wulßen, Hinrich Harm, b. Bremen (St Stephen) 1668, d. ... ; m. 29 October 1693 Gisebe Meyer, daugther of Cord Meyer
f.) Wulßen, Magnus, b. Bremen (St Stephen) 1670, d.
...
Other Scotsmen who became burgesses of Bremen in the middle of the 17th century: William Stachman (1649),
Joris Bart (1653; d. Bremen 1661), Johan Möhr from Leith (1656), Johan Willimsten / Hans Willemse, skipper from Dundee (1665; d. after 1674). See SCHWEBEL ([4]), p. 55, note 166.
[45a] Members of Parliament ([8]), pp. 560, 566 and 570.
[46] LUCAE ([2]), pp. 233 and 255.
[47] See DBA, microfiche 333, 119; www.uni-duisburg.de/Institute/CollCart/matrikel/pages/0039.htm; PRANGE ([39]), p. 233 and passim.
[48] See DBA, microfiche 497, 53.
[48a] PRANGE ([39]), p. 158, 233 and passim.
[48b] SCHWEBEL ([4]) does not mention the Formanoirs.
[49] See Johann Heinrich ZEDLER, Großes Vollständiges Universal-Lexikon, vol. 4, Halle and Leipzig 1733 (reprinted Graz 1961), col. 572.
[50] Hans-Jürgen VON WITZENDORFF-REHDIGER, Die Personalschriften der Bremer Staatsbibliothek bis 1800 = Bremische Bibliographie, vol. 1, Bremen 1960, p. 22 (p. 26 also an entry concerning the funeral sermon for Bonar's wife Elisabeth née von Brossard, b. Erfurt 1633, d. Bremen 1662).
[51] See BBA, microfiche 761, 421 (with a survey of his direct descent).
[52] See BBA, microfiche 280, 143; Vicary GIBBS (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, New edition, revised and much enlarged, vol. 3, London 1913 (reprinted Gloucester 1984), pp. 495 f.
[53] DNB, vol. 3, pp. 87-9.
[54] SCHWEBEL ([4]), p. 46, note 142.
[55] DNB, vol. 3, pp. 87 f.
[56] See DNB, vol. 13, pp. 1298 f.
[57] See DNB, vol. 11, p. 12 f. See also www.familytreemaker.com/users/g/a/m/raylean--gambill/GENE8-0007.html.
[58] See DNB, vol. 11, p. 11 f.
[59] "How odd that Helen Mercer would marry into the Claypole family, one wonders if her father would have approved, had he been alive to witness the event. Perhaps there were political ends to be achieved? Her mother-in-law (Mary Angell, wife of Sir John Claypole) has a similar story to tell, having come from a family staunchly loyal to the throne, only to end up marrying a Claypole. However this marriage took place in 1622 and times may have been different" (David CLARK, mail to Kai DREWES, 17 August 1998).
[60] See Isaiah THOMAS, The History of Printing in America, With A Biography of Printers in Two Volumes, Second Edition, vol. 2, New York 1874 (reprinted ibid. 1972), p. 139, note 1.
[61] RUBINCAM ([1]), pp. 201 f.
[62] Charles M. HANSEN, The Descent of James Claypoole of Philadelphia from Edward I, A Correction of the Lineage, in: The American Genealogist, vol. 67 (April 1992), pp. 97-107. The version of the descent in ABA, microfiche 1329, 411 is wrong.
[63] Marion BALDERSTON (ed.), James Claypoole's Letter Book, London and Philadelphia, 1681-1684, San Marino (California) 1967, p. 4.
[64] Rebecca Irwin GRAFF, Genealogy of the Claypoole Family of Philadelphia 1588-1893, 1893, p. 50 (according to RUBINCAM ([1]), p. 202). GRAFF writes "Merces" but RUBINCAM ([1]), p. 206 says Claypoole definitely wrote "Mercer".
[65]
"As you may know, the calendar year used to begin in March. But in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII initiated the Gregorian calendar which was speedily adopted throughout most of the western world -- EXCEPT Britain and her colonies which did not adopt the new calendar until 1752. It was a dumb way of refusing to bend to the pope's authority. Nevertheless, the British often designated dates as both old style and new style as in: Jan 25 1625/26, which would show that it was 1626 by the New Style calendar, but 1625 by the old one, because the New Year didn't occur until the vernal equinox.
It's not so confusing until you throw in the additional complication of Quaker dating. Quakers for religious reasons refused to name the months by "pagan" names (Julius=July Augustus=August). Instead they number the months BUT until 1752, the first month is March. Therefore, there is not a typo in the groom memorandum of his own marriage, just a problem created by an outdated calendar. He WAS married in February, which was actually HIS twelfth month" (Aprille Cooke MCKAY, mail to Kai DREWES, 30 November 1998).
[66] Johann UELTZEN-BARCKHAUSEN, Das Verzeichnis der Getrauten zu Bremen - St. Pauli - in den 50 Jahren 1650-1699 = Blätter der "Maus", Gesellschaft für Familienforschung Bremen e.V., no. 10 (December 1935), p. 14.
[67] Johann Conrad Laelius (see DBA = Deutsches Biographisches Archiv, microfiche 730, 214; UELTZEN-BARCKHAUSEN ([66]), IX f.) had been born in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse on 1 October 1606, attended the - Calvinistic - Gymnasium Illustre zu Bremen since 5 April 1627 (Thomas ACHELIS and Adolf BÖRTZLER, Die Matrikel des Gymnasium Illustre zu Bremen 1610-1810 = Bremisches Jahrbuch, series 2, vol. 3, Bremen 1968, p. 42) and was parson of Billingheim, Palatinate from 1633 to 1638. Then he fled to Bremen and became metropolitan at St Paul's Church in 1639. He died in Bremen on 4 December 1667 and was married to Catharina Götzen from Bergzabern.
[68] Armin M. BRANDT, Bau deinen Altar auf fremder Erde, Die Deutschen in Amerika - 300 Jahre Germantown, Stuttgart 1983, pp. 90 f.
[69] xxx.
[70] BALDERSTON ([63]), p. 123.
[71] The children of Thomas Mercer (Merser) and Margaret Gregorie (all were baptized in Saint Nicholas in Aberdeen):
a.) Merser, Agnas, bapt. 18 December 1659
b.) Merser, Thomas, bapt. 4 Jule 1661
c.) Merser, Jeane, bapt. 25 June 1663
d.) Merser, Christan, bapt. 13 May 1666
e.) Mercer, James, bapt. 22 July 1669
f.) Mercer, John, bapt. 27 October 1674
See www.familysearch.com (International Genealogical Index, © by the LDS Church).
[72] See DNB, vol. 3, p. 167; BBA, microfiche 66, 3-88; BBA 2, microfiche 1278, 325-331.
[73] A. R. BARCLAY (ed.), Letters, &c. Of Early Friends; Illustrative of the History of the Society, etc., in: William and Thomas EVANS (eds.), The Friends Library, vol. 11, Philadelphia: Joseph Rakestraw, 1847, p. 403 (cited at www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/lef102.htm).
[74] BBA, microfiche 66, 027 f. See also BLC ([12]), vol. 218, London 1983, p. 392 and BLC ([12]), vol. 304, p. 146.
[75] He must not be mixed up with Thomas Mercer (1655-1716), a Quaker from Aynho on the Hill in Northampton, England who emigrated to Thornbury, Chester, Philadelphia in abt. 1695 and married in abt. 1687 Mary Greenaway (abt. 1665-1723). On 5 May 1679 he was one of 27 witnesses of a "Certificate of Removal of John Borton" and his wife Anne from Aynho (the Bortons were Quakers, too, who emigrated to New Jersey together with their eight children). The text of the certificate can be found at www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/7109/johnborton1.html. About the Mercers from Aynho and their descendants in America see www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/3464/mercer.htm.
There was also a Thomas Mercer who died in Boston, Massachussets on 28 May 1699 (see ABA, microfiche 1102, 211) but he is supposed to derive from another family, too.
[76] See BBA, microfiche 635, 421-437; BBA 2, microfiche 1589, 291-293; ABA, microfiche 883, 3-11 and 137-150.
[77] BALDERSTON ([63]), p. 123.
[78] Ibid., p. 123 f.
[78a] See DBA, microfiche 1126, 354. Conrad Schnell derived from a family of merchants in Bremen, being the son of Ludwig Schnell (Ladewig Schnelle) (d. 1644), merchant and since 1618 councillor. See ibid., 360 and PRANGE ([39]), p. 85 and passim.
[79] See Ernst Heinrich KNESCHKE (Hrsg.), Neues allgemeines Deutsches Adels-Lexicon, vol. 8, Leipzig 1868, p. 190; Heimat- und Verschönerungsverein Burg-Lesum (ed.), Burg-Lesumer Heimatbuch [1985], p. 300 and passim.
[80] See DBA, microfiche 784, 156-172; ADB, vol. 19, p. 336 f. - Son of Johann Lucae (see DBA, microfiche 784, 157 and 173 f.), b. Brieg, Silesia ... 1602, professor of mathematics, poetry and oriental languages as well as principal at the classical school of Brieg, writer, d. (ibid.) 13 December 1673; m. (ibid.) in 1632 Marie Muck (Mücks), b. ibid. abt. 1617/18, d. ibid. ... 1666.
[81] See DBA 2, microfiche 773, 322.
[82] LUCAE ([2]), pp. 215 f.
[83] Ibid., p. 223.
[84] See ADB, vol. 40, pp. 735 f. She was the widow of Christian Wilhelm von Wallenstein (whose family was not related with the famous Thirty Years' War general of the same name but much esteemed by the Counts of Hesse-Cassel). When Princess Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel married the later King Christian V of Denmark in 1667 Mrs von Wallenstein went with her as a royal lady teacher to Copenhagen. In 1669 she returned to Cassel but from 1677 until 1692 she was with the Princess in Copenhagen again. At last she lived with her son in Homberg, Hesse where she died on 1 October 1692, aged 74.
[85] LUCAE ([2]), pp. 220 and 226 f.
[86] Ibid., p. 229.
[87] Ibid., pp. 234 ff.
[88] Ibid., pp. 232 f.
[89] Ibid., p. 268.
[90] Ibid., p. 270.
[91] For the history of Wanfried see www.werra-meissner.de/wanfried/default_ns.htm.
[92] ACHELIS and BÖRTZLER [67], p. 156.
[93] Dethart Uckermann, b. abt.
1617/18, lawyer, merchant and 1648, 1652, 1653, 1662, 1668 and 1676 mayor of Wanfried, Hesse, bur. Wanfried 17 November 1698; m. Trendelburg, Hesse 13 November 1644 (Anna) Juliane Boppenhausen, b. Wanfried abt. 1627/28, d. ibid. 20 October 1695.
[94] See [84].
[95] Church book of Wanfried (microfiche in the Archive of the Regional Church of Hesse in Cassel), funerals 1650-1761, p. 60.
[96] See Wilm SIPPEL, Die Geistlichen des "Metropolitanats" Sontra 1525-1975 (Sontraer Pfarrerbuch), part 1: Sontra und Berneburg = Veröffentlichungen aus der Geschichte der althessischen "Landschaft an der Werra", vol. 2, Göttingen 1980, p. 34 ff.; Deutsches Geschlechterbuch, vol. 84, Görlitz 1935, pp. 731 ff. (with additions in vol. 107, Görlitz 1939, p. 589).
[97] See ADB, vol. 13, pp. 124 f.; NDB, vol. 9, pp. 623 f.
[98] See Rüdiger MACK, Libertinärer Pietismus, Die Wanderungen der Pfarrerswitwe Wetzel, in: Jahrbuch der hessischen Kirchengeschichtlichen Vereinigung, vol. 29 (1978), pp. 81-107.
[99] VON EHRENKROOK ([5]), p. 57. According to him more about this marriage can be found in Georg HESEKIEL, Schellen-Moritz, Deutsches Leben im 18. Jahrhundert, Historischer Roman, vol. 2, Berlin 1869, pp. 146-169.