Mercer Chronicle

44 APPENDIX TO
the revenue thence accruing to any other than to the said sur-
veyors.
And therefore we command you, and imperatively enjoin,
that you faithfully and diligently attend to all and each of the
premises, and carry them into effect, according to the foresaid
regulation.
And we command all and each, sheriffs, mayors, bailies,
inferior officers, merchants, masters and mariners, and fisher-
men, and all our other faithful subjects whatsoever, both within
and without the liberties of the whole foresaid Admiralty, ac-
cording to the tenor of these presents, that they give attention
thereto, and be obedient and accountable to you and your
deputies foresaid, and to any of you, in all and each of the pre-
mises.
In testimony of which we have commanded that these our
letters patent continue till the feast of Saint Katherine next to
come.
In presence of the King at Westminster, on the sixteenth
day of June [1379].
By Petition of the Community in Parliament.
In the Athencdum for 1856 is a review of M'Kie's "Historical
Account of Folkestone ;" with reference to some remarks therein
made on the capture of the " fierce Scotch pirate, Mercier,"
General Alexander Cavalie Mercer contributes, at p. 1314, the
following criticisms and anecdote : —
" Allow me to correct a slight mistake in the Athenaeum of
August last, p. 1016, and to state that the ' fierce Scotch pirate '
there mentioned was Mercer, not 'Mercier.' John Mercer,*
though termed a pirate in the parlance of that day (2 Rich. II.),
was in reality a gallant and patriotic subject of Scotland's King.
At a time when England's and Scotland's royal navies were
mere fragments — when national armaments were got up by con-
* According to General Alexander C. Mercer, an accurate scholar, the
naval adventurer was John Mercer ; and the preceding statute proves the
terror which he had inspired in England.