Draft:Mercy Scollay

• Comment: Most, if not all, of the sources are primary and much are this appears to original research which is not allowed. S0091 (talk) 20:05, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

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Mercy Scollay
Portrait of a Lady in Blue Dress, 1763, by John Singleton Copley. Portrait of a Lady in Blue by John Singleton Copley
Born	(1741-09-11)September 11, 1741 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	January 8, 1826(1826-01-08) (aged 84) Boston, Massachusetts
Resting place	Vine Lake Cemetery
Known for	fiancée of Joseph Warren
Parent(s)	John Scolley Mercy Scolley (née Greenleaf)
Relatives	William Scollay (brother)

Mercy Scollay (September 11, 1741 – January 8, 1826) was a patriot, fiancée of Founding Father General Joseph Warren, as well as caretaker of his children before and after his untimely death at Bunker Hill.

Mercy corresponded with Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, and Benedict Arnold regarding her concerns of raising the Warren children. These leaders recognized her position and were on friendly terms with her. More than 80 of her letters to and from various early important figures survive today in various collections and have been transcribed.

Biography

Mercy Scollay was born in Boston on September 11, 1742 to John Scollay and Mercy Scolley (née Greenleaf). John was a fire marshal, on the Boston Board of Selectmen from 1758-1790, serving as chairman from 1772-1790. He was also a member of the Sons of Liberty.

Joseph Warren had been practicing medicine in Boston since graduating from Harvard in 1763 and was and was a founding member of the Sons of Liberty. Mercy became a patient of Warren, first appearing on his patient list on 30 May 1774. She had likely already been acquainted with him as her father John had ben a patient of his since 1765. Warren had become a widower in 1773 with four young children; Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, and Richard.

In June 1774, an anonymous poem Articles Which Female Vanity has Comprised as Necessaries appeared in the Royal American Magazine. The sensational poem was an answer to a challenge posed by Warren in the midst of the Intolerable Acts. Hannah Winthrop wrote to her friend Mercy Otis Warren in September that she had heard the author was Mercy Scollay.

The Warren Children

With Warren's ever increasing duties from the Boston Committee of Correspondance and as the President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Mercy stepped up as full time caretaker of the chidlren. By the time the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Warren had feared for the safety of Mercy and the children. He sent them to stay with Dr. Elijah Dix and his wife, Dorothy, in Worcester, a little over 50 miles west along with personal goods.Mercy forged a strong bond with the children and Dorothy during this months long stay, as evidenced in their correspondence of the six decades that would follow.

When Warren was killed in action at Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, Mercy continued as the caregiver of the children, now aged 10 - 3 years old.In August, Mercy traveled to Watertown with the girls; Elizabeth and Mary. While there she discovered Warren's brother, John Warren, had taken Warren's possessions and sold some and kept others. She found John Hancock, Samual, and John Adams and complained of this and also informed them there was no money left to help care for the children.While she went to Worcester, she left the boys, Joseph and Richard, with the Dix family. Mercy refers to the children as "my dear little girls and boys" in correspondence. Mercy was unsettled by the fact the children's grandmother, Mary Warren, wanted them out of Worcester. She appealed to Hancock and Adams, informing them Warren requested her to be their caretaker if anything should happen to him.

With the Siege of Boston ending in March 1776, Mercy and the children went back to Boston to live with her parents. She petitioned the court to allow the children draw their father's pension, but it was denied. In April, John Warren visited Mercy and they had a dispute over guardianship of his nieces and nephews. John had learned the children were staying at the Scollay home and told her he didn't know she was engaged to her brother. In a letter to Mrs. Dix, she says of this misunderstanding, "I was a little nettled at his manner of speaking and told him twas an affair of too much delicacy for me to converse upon but had his Brother continued here, he might have been better inform’d perhaps by this time . . . but we parted good friends, I promised to see the children frequently, and begd I might be imployd in any thing, wherein I might be servicable to the dear little creatures—Thus ended a conversation in which I sufferd many pangs." John took the children with him, which greatly troubled Mercy. However, by July the children were living with her again.

In early 1777, Samuel Adams was present in Baltimore at the Second Continental Congress. He heard a motion for a monument to be dedicated to General Mercer, who fell at the Battle of Princeton, and for the government to pay for the education of his eldest son. Adams saw this as an opportunity to propose the same for his friend Warren, which he was able to secure. In March, Adams wrote to Mercy stating he met with John Warren and expressed to him the eldest son, Joseph, would be sent to Drummer School and the other 3 children should be kept together under Mercy's care.

John Warren legally adopted the children, although Mary and Richard continued to stay with her. The children of Warren remained of great interest, with Samuel Adams writing to John Hancock In December 1779, "The two younger children, a boy of about seven years, and a girl somewhat older, are in the family of John Scollay, Esq., under the particular care of his daughter at her most earnest request . . . Miss Scollay deserves the greatest praise for her attention to them."

In 1778, Benedict Arnold donated Mercy 500 silver dollars for the care of Warren's children and also lobbied Congress to provide the children with a pension. The St. Andrew'ss Masonic Lodge, where Warren was Master, also addressed the needs of the children.

Mercy's constant efforts came to fruition in 1780 when Congress approved a pension for the children at the half-pay of a Major General with back pay to Warren's death at Bunker Hill.

Later Life

At some point after 1780, the children were no longer living with her and Mercy was caring for her ailing parents. After 1797, Mercy moved to Medford with her sister Mary and husband Thomas Prentiss. Mercy passed away January 8, 1826.

Family

Mercy's brother William Scollay(1756-1809) was an apothecary, real estate developer, and served as colonel of the Massachusetts Line. In 1795, William purchased a four-story building at Cambridge and Court Streets and the intersection become know as Scollay Square, which is now known as Government Center. He was also Deputy Grand Master of the Freemasons of Massachusetts.

Mercy's sister Priscilla (1755-1833) married Thomas Melvill (1751-1832), member of the Sons of Liberty, merchant, participant in the Boston Tea Party, and major in Craft's Regiment of Artillery. Priscilla and Thomas are the paternal grandparents of writer Herman Melville.