Shadrach \sh(a)-dra-ch, shad-rach\ Babylonian origin, and the meaning of Shadrach is “command of Aku”. Aku was the Babylonian moon god. In the Old Testament, one of the three Hebrew men thrown into a fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar and rescued by an angel. Used steadily in the 16th-19th centuries.
1 William Mercer (1590 – )
……2 Christopher Mercer (1612 – 1671)
………3 Thomas Mercer (1648 – 1718)
…………4 Christopher Mercer (1672 – 1711)
……………5 Thomas Mercer (1695 – after 1780)
………………6 Shadrach Mercer (1740 – 1800)
…………………7 Thomas-Martin Mercer (1779 – 1821)
……………………8 Nancy Anne Mercer (1804 – after 1850)
……………………+ Ezekiel Tyson (1800 – Bet. 1840 and 1850)
The following excerpt comes from the extensive Mercer Family History research of the late Don W. Mercer, 1985, Houston, Texas:
Shadrach Mercer was born in Craven County, North Carolina about 1740, if not earlier. This is based on the fact that he was a witness to a deed in Craven County, North Carolina on July 29, 1761. He would have been at least twenty-one years of age at that time for legal purposes. One thing which has hampered research on Shadrach is the relative scarcity of records from the counties in which he either lived or had business dealings. Several of these counties have suffered fires in their courthouses (Craven, Dobbs, and Greene) and some records have been lost.
At the present time there is a break in the trail of Shadrach from 1761 to 1767. Then he is found in Pitt county as a witness to a deed; Remember this would be about five years after Thomas Mercer (Shadrach’s father) moved there. The deed states that “Sullivant(sic) sold land to Thomas (Pitt County, North Carolina Deed Book D, p.105, 1768).
Shadrach also appears as a witness to deeds in Pitt County in 1776 and again in 1787. The 1776 reference states that “Thomas Mercer and wife Sarah sold land to William Vimes(sic).” The deed names Christopher and Jacob Mercer as brothers of Thomas Mercer and places them in the vicinity of the sale. The references also state that part of this land was a grant that had belonged to Thomas Mercer, father of the above named men. The deed was witnessed by Shadrach Mercer, William Brantley and Thomas Mercer (Pitt county, North Carolina Deed Book F, p. 16 5 March 7, 1776). Because Shadrach witnessed this deed and the one in 1768 (preceding paragraph) it is reasonable to think he was also a brother of Christopher, Thomas Jr., and Jacob and therefore a son of Thomas Mercer of Pitt county. Another strong piece of kinship evidence comes from the1780 tax list for Dobbs County. This shows that Shadrach, along with Christopher and Thomas. lived within a few houses of one another in the vicinity of Waltonsburg and Speight’s Bridge. This portion of Dobbs County was later named Glasgow County. Shadrach voted for members of the State Legislature in Glasgow County in 1793. The name Glasgow was changed to Greene County in 1797. All this changing of county names can be very confusing. Probably Shadrach and his family stayed in the same area throughout all the changes.
Shadrach appears on the 1790 Dobbs County census but is not on the 1800 listing for any county in North Carolina. It is thought he died in Dobbs (Greene) County, North Carolina between 1797 and 1800. He had four brothers and one sister: Christopher, John, Jacob, Amos and Abigail “Abie(sic)” who married a Bergeron in Dobbs County. Shadrach married Rhoda Price in North Carolina around 1777. She was born in North Carolina in 1761 and died in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky between 1830 and 1840. They had nine children four sons and five daughters.
Shadrach Mercer gave land to Meadow Primitive Baptist Church on SR 303, Walstonburg, NC 10/31/1789.
After the death of Shadrach Mercer his widow Rhoda (Price) Mercer and her children removed to Madison County, Kentucky in 1800. Her eldest son the Rev. Martin Mercer a Baptist minister was married at this time and did not come to Kentucky until 1816. Stephen Vick her son-in-law, who married Susannah Mercer and his brother Isaiah Vick, who later married Rhoda Mercer came with her and lived in Madison County until shortly after 1815 at which time they moved to Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Hosea, Silas, David, Rhoda and Elizabeth Mercer were small children when they came.
Most of the family except Hosea had moved from Madison County until 1832 at which time he also moved to Muhlenberg County. He was a widower in 1830 with thirteen children, six sons and seven daughters. He married Rachel Groves in Muhlenberg County in 1835.
[[128771.ftw] INFO: Don W. Mercer – Houston, Texas.]