Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Family Papers, 1713-1853

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888
Restrictions:

Collection is open to research.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Family Papers, 1713-1853. Accession 20624. Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Family Papers, 1713-1853. Accession 20624. Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Papers, 1713-1853, of the Garnett-Mercer-Hunter families of Essex and Stafford Counties, and Fredericksburg, Virginia, consisting of: accounts, bills, bonds, essays, invoices, journals, letters, notes, patents, and wills.

Biographical / historical:

John Garnett (d. 1713/4) immigrated to Virginia and settled in Gloucester County, later moving to Essex County, Virginia. He and his wife Ann had three children, including James Garnett (1692-1765). James Garnett married four times. He and his first wife Sarah Green Garnett had seven children. Garnett and his second wife Elizabeth Muscoe (d. 1736) had one child, Muscoe Garnett (1736-1803). Garnett had five children by his third wife Mary Jones, and none by his fourth wife Margaret Scott.

Muscoe Garnett married Grace Fenton Mercer (1751-1814) and they had ten children, including James Mercer Garnett (1770-1843) and Maria Garnett (1777-1811). James M. Garnett married Mary Eleanor Dick Mercer (1774-1837), daughter of James Mercer (1736-1793), and they had nine children, including James Mercer Garnett, Jr. (1794-1824). Maria Garnett married James Hunter (d. 1826) and they had nine children including Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (1809-1887) and Maria Hunter (1797-1873). Maria Hunter married her first cousin James Mercer Garnett, Jr., and they had one child, Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett (1821-1864).

John Mercer (1670-1717) of Dublin, Ireland, married Grace Fenton (1680-1763) and they had fifteen children, including John Mercer (1704-1768) who migrated to Stafford County, Virginia. He married first Catherine Mason (1707-1750) and they had ten children including George Mercer (1733-1784) and James Mercer (1736-1793). James Mercer married Eleanor Dick, daughter of Charles Dick (1715-1783), and they had three children, including Mary Eleanor Dick Mercer (1774-1837), who married James Mercer Garnett, and Charles Fenton Mercer (1778-1858) who did not marry.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from James Mercer Garnett of Baltimore, Maryland, 24 July 1933.
Arrangement:

Organized into the following six series: Series I: James Mercer Garnett Papers. Series II: Muscoe R. H. Garnett Letters. Series III: Mercer-Hunter Family Letters. Series IV: James Hunter Papers. Series V: Garnett Family Wills. Series VI: Joseph Polson Bond.

Physical description:
.225