Mercer, Jesse, Dd

Mercer, Jesse, DD.

a Baptist minister, was born in Halifax County, N. C., Dec. 16, 1769. His early education was limited, yet he began to preach when only eighteen years of age; was ordained Nov. 7,1789, and soon became pastor of a Church at Hutton's Fork (now Sardis), in Wilkes County. In 1793 be accepted a call to Indian Creek (or Bethany), in Oglethorpe County, whence he removed in 1796 to Salem, where he became preceptor in the academy, and also succeeded his father in the charge of the Phillips Mill, Powelton, and Bethesda churches for some time, and finally removed to the fork of the Little River, in Green County. In 1826 he attended the General Convention in Philadelphia, and at the end of the next year accepted a call from the Church at Washington, Wilkes County, where he continued until 1833, when he became editor of the Christian Index, a religious periodical. He was made DD. by Brown University in 1835. He was for many years identified with the Georgia Association,' acting as clerk of that body from 1795 till 1816, and afterwards as moderator till 1839; he was also connected with the Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia from its beginning in 1822, being its moderator until 1841, when his impaired health obliged him, to resign. He became also one of the trustees of the college at Washington, and president of the mission board of the Georgia Association from 1830 to 1841. He died Sept. 6, 1841. Dr. Mercer published a large number of Addresses, Circular Letters, Essays, etc. See Mallory, Memoir of the Revelation Jesse Mercer, DD.; Sprague, Annals, 6:283.