Jesse Mercer

Jesse Mercer (1769–1841) was a prominent Baptist minister and eponym of Mercer University in the U.S. state of Georgia.

Born in the Province of North Carolina on December 16, 1769, he was the son of Silas Mercer, a Baptist minister who moved his family to Wilkes County, Georgia in the early 1770s. Silas Mercer founded several pioneer churches and convinced his son to follow him into 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 for 19 years, from its founding in 1822 until his death in 1841.

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. 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 Mercer University in 1838 after the Georgia General Assembly granted a university charter.

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