Mercer Family of Ewelme

More information from my correspondent, about the ancestry of Margaret Mercer and William Mercer, of Ewelme

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The Mercer family of Ewelme, Oxfordshire

Margaret Mercer, mother of Perrot ap Rice b abt. 1580
m abt 1598 to Thomas ap Rice of Rickeston and Scotsborough, Pembrokeshire d 1 May 1610
buried in St Mary's Church, Tenby, Pembrokeshire.
Dates of birth and death calculated from inscription on Scotsborough Monument. No baptism or marriage records for Margaret found to date.
William Mercer of Ewelme

Margaret was the daughter of William Mercer of Ewelme, Oxfordshire, probably by his wife, Joane (possibly nee Frost)
refs:
Francis Jones, “Rickeston and Scotsborough”, The Pembrokeshire Historian vol 2 p19 – 47 (1966) http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1041698/ll... id:1041780/getText
Edward Laws “The House of Scotsborough, near Tenby”, Archaeologia Cambrensis, Series 6, vol 6 p 81 - 92 (1906) https://archive.org/details/archaeologiacam06moorgoog

This William Mercer died in 1590 (PCC will written 14 Jan 1589/90, proved 27 Jan 1590/91) ref: National Archives PROB 11/2A/262 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D967538
also available through Ancestry

Margaret's father was almost certainly not the William Mercer who married Alice Hindle in Whalley, Lancashire, in 1559. According to online information relating to the Spiers family of Ewelme, there were Mercers living in Ewelme from the late 15th – early 16th C, if not earlier. Spiers family website:

http://www.spiers.net/ewelme.htm http://www.spiers.net/cantree/fam_1899.htm

The Spiers intermarried with the Mercer family. Thomas Spier of Tuffield, Oxfordshire, farmed at Waistcourt in Ewelme. In his will, written 9 Apr 1572 and proved 9 Jun 1573, Thomas named his nephew William Mercer (probably the son of Thomas's sister, Agnes Spier, and William Mercer) as one of his executors, and William was one of the witnesses to the will. Wastcourt/Westcourt was subsequently mentioned in William Mercer's will of 1590.

PCC will of Thomas Spier, Senior, of Tuffield, National Archives PROB 11/55/265 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/s/res? _srt=3&_col=2&_dt=W&_fn=Thomas&_ln=Spiers&_ser=PROB+11
also available through Ancestry

According to The Victoria County History: http://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/sites/default/files/work-in-...
“Much larger were the leaseholds centred on Cottesmore (270 a.) and Westcourt farms (338 a.), the latter run by the resident Mercer family, and made up mostly of inclosed demesne. In 1581 William Mercer was Ewelme’s weathiest inhabitant, and Maximilian Mercer (d. 1614) left goods worth the exceptional sum of £859, including £600 for the Westcourt lease.”