"At a General Court held at the Court House in Williamsburg the 12th October 1749" the John Savage survey of 1731 was "Decreed & Ordered" to be "the only Survey" of Marlborough. The problem of overlapping boundaries occasioned by the conflicts between the first two surveys was solved neatly. Mercer agreed to accept lots 1 through 9, 22 and 25, and 33, 34, 42, and 43, "instead of the s^d 17 lots so purchased." The new lots extended up the Potomac River shore, while the "s^d 17 lots" were those which he had originally purchased and had built upon. Since he had "saved" these 17 lots by building on them, according to the old laws for the town, "it is further decreed & ordered that the said Town of Marlborough grant & convey unto the s^d John Mercer in fee such & so many other Lotts in the said Town as shall include the Houses & Improvm^{ ts} made by the said John Mercer according to the Rate of 400 square feet of Housing for each Lot so as the Lots to be granted for any House of greater Dimensions be contiguous & are not separated from the said House by any of the Streets of the said Town."[111]
Thus, Mercer's original titles to 17 lots were made secure by substituting new lots for the disputed ones he had occupied. This device enabled the feoffees to sell back the original lots--at £182 per lot--with new deeds drawn on the basis of the Savage survey. The final provision that lots be contiguous when a house larger than the minimum 400 square feet was built on them, and that the house and lots should not be separated by streets from each other, guaranteed the integrity of the mansion and its surrounding land. No mention was made here, or in subsequent transfers, of the courthouse land. Presumably it was conveniently forgotten, Mercer perhaps having duly recompensed his ward.
[108] James Taylor lived in Caroline County; the "Wid^o Taliaferro" was probably Mrs. John Taliaferro of Spotsylvania.
[109] Petition of John Mercer, loc. cit. (footnote 17).
[110] _JHB, 1742-1747; 1748-1749_, op. cit. (footnote 6), pp. 285-286.
[111] John Mercer's Land Book, loc. cit. (footnote 12).
Three weeks before his petition was read in the House, Mercer became ill. On October 26, 1748, he noted in his journal, "Very ill obliged to keep my bed." This was almost his first sickness after years of apparently robust health. Such indispositions as he occasionally suffered had occurred, like this one, at Williamsburg, where conviviality and rich food caused many another colonial worthy to founder. In this case, anxiety over the outcome of his petition may have brought on or aggravated his ailment. In any event, he stayed throughout the court session at the home of Dr. Kenneth McKenzie, who treated him. On November 3 he noted that he was "On Recovery," and two days later "went out to take the air." The following appears in his account with Dr. McKenzie: