Mercer Chronicle

X INTRODUCTION.
According to local and family tradition, this vault was a royal
grant to the family, in consideration of their having given to
one of the Scottish kings the mills of Perth, which belonged
to them. A possessor of a mill was a man of some weight
and honour in those days, and many charters are extant in
which the disposition of mills with lands and heritages, as
valuable property, is expressly mentioned. Eeferring to the
antiquity of the house of Mercer, a local rhyme says : —
" So sicker 'tis as anything on earth,
The Mercers aye are older than old Perth."
The mills of Perth appear to have been near the Inches of
Perth, which derive their name from being insulated by the
river Tay — inch in the Gaelic being island, and these Inches
still extend along its margin. In the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries the church of St. John at Perth was both magni-
ficent 2 and extensive, and in those times, the grant of a vault
in such a sacred and imposing edifice was considered a royal gift
indeed ; hence another rhyme, which somewhat wittily says: —
" Folk say the Mercers tried the town to cheat,
When for two Inches they did win six feet."
The founder of the baronial family of Aldie was John
Mercer, who, about 1340, was an opulent merchant burgess of
Perth, then the metropolis of Scotland. He was provost of
that city in 1357, 1369, and 1374, and several times com-
missioner for the burgh of Perth to the Scottish Estates of
Parliament ; also frequently ambassador to England, France,
and Holland. He had a great share in the negotiations in
regard to the ransom of King David II., then a prisoner in
England, and was held in high estimation by Charles V.,
surnamed the wise King of France. In Scotland, he was
receiver of the King's moneys, during the vacancy of the office
of chamberlain in 1376-77. His son Andrew was employed
2 A very unworthy economy has divided this cathedral into three (!)
churches. A very liberal spirit at Glasgow has restored and beautified
a cathedral. — I. S.