Jesse Mercer (1769–1841) was an American

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

minister and

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Mercer University Mercer University is a Private university, private Research university, research university in Macon, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the s ...

in the

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Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Early life

Born in the

Province of North Carolina The Province of North Carolina, originally known as the Albemarle Settlements, was a proprietary colony and later royal colony of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776.(p. 80) It was one of the five Southern col ...

on December 16, 1769, he was the son of Silas Mercer, a Baptist minister who moved his family to

Wilkes County, Georgia Wilkes County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,565. The county seat is the city of Washington. Referred to as "Washington-Wilkes", the county seat and ...

in the early 1770s. Silas Mercer founded several pioneer churches and convinced his son to follow him into the ministry.

Entering the ministry

Jesse Mercer was baptized by his father at the age of 17, married Sabrina Chivers of Wilkes County at age 19, and was formally ordained into the ministry at age 20. Sardis Church, originally called Hutton's Fork, was his first charge. In 1796, Mercer succeeded his father as pastor of the Phillips' Mill Church, which he served for 37 years. He also served as pastor of Bethesda Church (1796-1827), Powell's Creek Church, in Hancock County, Georgia (1797-1825), and the Baptist Church at Eatonton, Putnam County, Georgia (1820–26). In 1798, as a delegate to one of Georgia’s constitutional conventions, he wrote the section of the state constitution that secures religious liberty. Mercer was president of the

Georgia Baptist Convention The Georgia Baptist Mission Board is the executive committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention, which is a voluntary association of Baptist churches in the Georgia (U.S. state), U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is one of the List of ...

for 19 years, from its founding in 1822 until his death in 1841.

Marriages

Mercer's first wife died on September 23, 1826. He then moved to Washington, Georgia, and in December 1827 married Nancy Simons, a wealthy widow who joined him in making large gifts to Mercer Institute, a boys' manual labor school organized by the Georgia Baptist Convention in

Penfield, Georgia Penfield, Georgia, United States was established shortly after 1829 in Greene County, Georgia, Greene County, and named in honor of Josiah Penfield (1785–1828), a Savannah, Georgia, Savannah merchant and silversmith from Fairfield, Connecticut, ...

. Mercer provided a founding endowment and served as the first chairman of the school's board of trustees. In return, the school was named in his honor. The institute was renamed

in 1838 after the

Georgia General Assembly The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directl ...

granted a university charter.

Published works

Mercer published a popular

hymnal A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). They are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Christia ...

titled ''Cluster of Spiritual Songs'' in 1810. In later years, he also published the ''Christian Index'', which became the newspaper of the Georgia Baptist Convention. Mercer published a temperance newspaper in Washington, Georgia, though he at first was against the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

. In 1811 he wrote the circular letter for the Georgia Baptist Association in which he defended the Baptist rejection of alien immersion (immersions performed in non-Baptist churches) on the basis of Baptist successionism. In 1828, Mercer became the first pastor of Washington Baptist Church where he served until his death. Mercer died in 1841 and is buried in Penfield Cemetery,

Bibliography

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Early life

Entering the ministry

Marriages

Published works

Bibliography

References

Further reading