By 1723 Marlborough lay abandoned. George Mason (III), son of the late
sheriff and ordinary keeper in the port town, held the now-empty title
of feoffee, together with Rice Hooe. In that year Mason and Hooe
petitioned the General Court "that Leave may be given to bring in a Bill
to enable them to sell the said Land [of the town] the same not being
built upon or Inhabited." The petition was put aside for consideration,"
but within a week--on May 21, 1723--it was "ordered That Rice Hooe &
George Mason be at liberty to withdraw their petition ... and that the
Committee to whom it was referred be discharged from proceeding
thereon."[49]
This curious sequence remains unexplained. Had the committee informally
advised the feoffees that their cause would be rejected, suggesting,
therefore, that they withdraw their petition? Or had something
unexpected occurred to provide an alternative solution to the problem of
Marlborough?
Possibly it was the latter, and the unexpected occurrence may have been
the arrival in Stafford County of young John Mercer. There is no direct
evidence that Mercer was in the vicinity as early as 1723; but we know
that he appeared before 1725, that he had by then become well acquainted
with George Mason, and that he settled in Marlborough in 1726.
Mercer's remarkable career began with his arrival in Virginia at the
age of 16. Born in Dublin in 1704, the son of a Church Street merchant
of English descent--also named John Mercer--and of Grace Fenton Mercer,
John was educated at Trinity College, and then sailed for the New World
in 1720.[50] How Mercer arrived in Virginia or what means he brought
with him are lost to the record. From his own words written toward the
end of his life we know that he was not overburdened with wealth:
"Except my education I never got a shilling of my fathers or
any other relations estate, every penny I ever got has been
by my own industry & with as much fatigue as most people have
undergone."[51]
From his second ledger (the first, covering the years 1720-1724, having
been lost) we learn that he was engaged in miscellaneous trading,
sailing up and down the rivers in his sloop and exchanging goods along
the way. Where his home was in these early years we do not know, but it
would appear that he had been active in the Stafford County region for
some time, judging from the fact that by 1725 he had accumulated £322
4s. 5-1/2d. worth of tobacco in a warehouse at the falls of the
Rappahannock.[52] He certainly had encountered George Mason before then,
and probably Mason's uncles, John, David, and James Waugh, the sons of
Parson John Waugh, all of whom owned idle Marlborough properties.
Mercer's friendship with the Masons was sufficiently well established by
1725 that on June 10 of that year he married George's sister Catherine.
This marriage, most advantageous to an aspiring young man, was
celebrated at Mrs. Ann Fitzhugh's in King George County with the
Reverend Alexander Scott of Overwharton Parish in Stafford County
officiating.[53] Thus, allied to an established family that was "old" by
standards of the time and sponsored socially by a representative of the
Fitzhughs, Mercer was admitted at the age of 21 to Virginia's growing
aristocracy.
In this animated and energetic youth, the Masons and Waughs probably saw
the means of bringing Marlborough back to life. Mercer, for his part, no
doubt recognized the advantages that Marlborough offered, with its
sheltered harbor and landing, its fertile, flat fields, and airy
situation. That it could be acquired piecemeal at a minimum of
investment through the provisions of the Act for Ports was an added
inducement.