# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Mercer, Margaret

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MERCER, MARGARET,
Deserving a place among the most distinguished of her sex, for her noble philanthropy, and efforts in the cause of female education, was born at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1791. The family of Mercer descended from an ancient English stock, transplanted to that country soon after its colonization; the race has, in its new location, done honour to the source from whence it was derived. The father of Margaret was, at the time of her birth, governor of Maryland, a man of excellent education, refined taste, and large wealth. Retiring from public life, Governor Mercer withdrew to his estate at Cedar Fork, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, and the training of his children. Margaret was his only daughter, and her education was conducted under his immediate care, with little assistance from other teachers: she often remarked, that she had been "brought up at her father's feet. Margaret Mercer is another example, added to the list which this book furnishes, of the beneficial influence which through mental training exercises on woman's character, by enabling her to make her moral power more respected and effective. Scarcely an instance can be found where a father has aided and encouraged the mental improvement of his daughter, but that she has done honour to his care and kindness, and been the brightest jewel in his intellectual crown. Such was Margaret Mercer; proud as the family might well be of the name they bore, she has added its holiest lustre. "Her character," says her biographer, Morris, in his excellent "Memoir" of this noble woman, "comprised elements apparently very diverse, and yet all combined into a perfect whole, as the varied colours of a ray of light. Gentle, and full of affection for all, and ready to sympathize with sorrow wherever met with; feelings, the evidence of which will be found scattered everywhere around these traces of her path through life, she yet possessed an energy and firmness rarely found in this connexion."
If Dr. Morris had reflected farther on the subject, how few girls are trained as Margaret Mercer was—her mental powers developed, and directed to guide and strengthen rightly those delicate moral sensibilities and tender affections peculiar to her sex, he would have found the reason of her superiority; and also he would have understood why learning—we use the term in its widest sense—is of great advantage to woman as well as to man.
Well fitted as she was by education and energy of mind, and noble philanthropy of purpose, Miss Mercer was to have a wide sphere for the office of teacher, which seemed her peculiar mission. Her mother died when she was young. Her father's death, which took place at Philadelphia, whither she had accompanied him for his health, proved the crisis of her life. She had been accustomed ​to all the indulgences love and wealth can bestow. From this time, she was to prove what those endure who have only their faith in God and their own energies on which to rely. Much of her property consisted in slaves—these she liberated, provided for, and sent to Liberia.
And now she was to begin the world; she chose the arduous post of teacher in a school for young girls in Virginia; but her plans of charity were not given up. Thus she writes to a friend: "I have been desiring a day or two of repose that I might devote to you and your dearest mother. But, indeed, you have very little idea of the life I lead. Saturday is as laboriously spent in working for the Liberian Society, as any other day in the week; and on Sunday we have a Sunday-school, in which I have my part, and so make out to employ every day fully. Drawing keeps me on my feet for six hours every other day; and at first it was truly bewildering to teach twenty-three children who did not know how to make a straight line. You are anxious to know all about me, and you see I am free in my communication: there are many encouraging circumstances in the mode of life I have adopted; for those very things that are most painful prove how much there is to do; and where there is much to do, steady laborious efforts to do good will doubtless be blessed, although we may in mercy be denied the luxury of seeing our work under the sun prosper. Mrs. G. is sometimes very much dispirited, at times without cause; for every little painful occurrence of misconduct in the children affords opportunity of more strenuously enforcing good principles. I never knew how to be thankful to my parents, above all to my God, for a good education, until I came to look into the state of young ladies generally."
The desire to be made instrumental in training souls for eternity, was the ruling motive by which she was influenced; and, from the very first, her chief efforts were devoted to this great end, which was pursued without deviation throughout her whole career, though by no means to the neglect of those subsidiary acquirements which she esteemed as highly as any one could do, and laboured most unremittingly to communicate to her pupils.
She continued in this, her chosen profession, for about twenty-five years; established a school of her own; and her example and influence have had a most salutary and wide-spread effect on the community where she resided. This admirable woman died in the autumn of 1846, aged fifty-five years. She prepared two works for her pupils, "Studies for Bible Classes," and a volume entitled "Ethics;" in the form of lectures to young ladies, which she employed as a text-book in teaching moral philosophy. It is admirably adapted to its purpose, conveying in chaste, yet glowing language, the feelings of a sanctified heart. She adopts the word of God as the only source of knowledge, as well of the practical duties of life, as of our relations to the Author of our being, and endeavours to explain and enforce the principles there laid down for the formation of character, and the government of life. It is a work well worthy of the diligent study of every woman who desires to attain to a high degree of moral worth.