Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mercer, Andrew
MERCER, ANDREW (1775–1842), poet and topographer, was born in Selkirk in 1775. He was destined for the ministry, and in 1790 entered the university of Edinburgh. Ultimately he gave up theology, studied the fine arts, and endeavoured unsuccessfully to make a living in Edinburgh as a miniature-painter and man of letters. He wrote both in prose and verse for the ‘Edinburgh’ and ‘Scots’ magazines, and edited the ‘North British Magazine’ during its short existence. He subsequently settled in Dunfermline, where he lived by teaching and by drawing patterns for the damask manufacturers. His best-known work is a ‘History of Dunfermline from the earliest Records’ (Dunfermline, 1828). There was also published in his name an ‘Historical and Chronological Table of the Ancient Town of Dunfermline from 1064 to 1834,’ which was really an abridgment, with the consent of the author, Mr. E. Henderson, of a manuscript volume entitled ‘Annals of Dunfermline from the earliest Records to 1833.’ He was the author of a poem on ‘Dunfermline Abbey’ (Dunfermline, 1819), and a volume of verse, ‘Summer Months among the Mountains’ (Edinburgh, 1838). A man of considerable ingenuity and scholarship, he lacked steadiness of application, and his last years were clouded by poverty (Chalmers). He died at Dunfermline, 11 June 1842.
[Rogers's Scottish Minstrel, p. 150; Chalmers's Historical and Statistical Account of Dunfermline, 1844, pp. 77, 552; Grant Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland, ii. 531.]