Jean Mercier

Biography

Jean Mercier, also recorded as Jan, belonged to the French-speaking community of Southampton, a port on England’s south coast. A published extract of the French church register records his marriage to Jeanne Le Clerc on October 18, 1579. It identifies him as a native of Tournai, now in Belgium, and her as a native of Valenciennes, now in northern France; both fathers were then widowers and consented to the marriage. The couple's children's baptisms appear in the same church records over the following two decades.

Family research identifies him with the Southampton merchant examined as John Merchier on March 21, 1593. Questioned about two bundles of canvas and five casks of sack wine, the merchant described goods passing through Brittany in northwestern France, the Channel Island of Jersey, and the English ports of London and Southampton. He denied prohibited trading with the Saint-Malo League. The examination records his answers, not a verdict against him.

These church and commercial records place Jean in an immigrant family with connections across the Channel. His identification as the father of Hester Mercer Batchelder remains provisional in the family genealogy.