The Mercier’s came from France and migrated to Quebec Canada area.
There is a lot more to the history than what is here. This is just snipes
of the bigger store. But this is a good start at the Mercier history.
Written by Gregory E. Mercier between April of 2012 and April of 2013.
The Mercier Family
The name Mercier originated in the Old French language and was derived from the Vulgar Latin root merciarius, meaning one who trades. In Old French, mercier originally meant shopkeeper or tradesman in a generic sense, however with the uniting of French speaking areas as the Middle Ages progressed, a dialectical variation of a similar Latin root, the work marcheant in Modern French, took over as the general word for such a trader.
By the 12th century, the word mercier had come to specifically denote a small trader who sold textile fabrics and other articles related to sewing such as pins and needles. Over time the merciers expanded their shops to include trinkets of all sorts, creating whimsical one stop shops. In addition to the merciers settled in medieval towns and cities, many other roamed the countryside, peddling their wares at the fairs that were so common throughout the era.
The word mercier entered the English language in the 12th century as the word mercer, which specifically denoted a dealer in textile in English. Such a tradesman is similar to what is called haberdasher in articles and not the sale of cloth, while the sale of cloth was the basis of the trade of the mercier. Thus the English word and surname Mercer is a cognate of the Old French Mercier, much in the same way many English occupational surnames derived from French roots in the year following.
The First ‘Merciers’
In 12th century France, people still had only one name (a first name), but due to a rapidly expanding population they began using bynames (non-hereditary secondary names/nicknames) in order to differentiate each other. Bynames were created from an identifiable characteristic, such as a physical trait: i.e. LeGrand (the big); the name of their father: i.e. Martin; their place of residence or origin: i.e. DuBois (from the woods), or their job: i.e. Le Mercier, Le Charpentier, etc. In this context no fewer than seventy individuals with the Le Mercier byname were recorded in a 1292 census of Paris, at which time the city was the largest in the Western world by land area and population, with approximately 175,000 people.
Two kinds of merciers plied their trade in Medieval France. Most common in large cities were the sedentary merciers, who operated stalls in the city markets or their own independent shops; these would be referred to in French as une échoppe de mercier, a ‘mercier’s shop.’ They traded in more expensive goods which typically were obtained from manufacturers in their own city. The Parisian merciers were grouped on the right bank in the Middle Ages and established their own guild in 1137. They had an established area in Les Halles, the traditional central market of Paris, and were known to trade in very luxurious and expensive fabrics. There was also second type of mercier, the merciers ambulants, or ‘traveling merciers.’ These tradesmen were more independent, not having an established connection to a guild or markets in their home city. They would travel throughout the countryside visiting fairs and small town markets to sell their wares. It is likely that our Mercier family descends from a traveling mercier, given that the earliest identifiable Mercier ancestor came from an area that lacked any cities large enough to support sedentary mercier shops. Perhaps this traveling mercier met a local woman while at a market in his travels, fell in love, and chose to settle down with her. The allure of settling down to a sedentary life of farming may have been more attractive than wandering the dangerous medieval trade routes.
Origins of Our Mercier Ancestors – The Province of Perche
While the use of surnames gradually spread throughout France as the Middle Ages progressed, it wasn’t until 1539 that they were required and recorded. By that time all residents of France had converted their last generational byname to a surname, which would be attached to their family for the rest of history, preserving their medieval origins. Nearly eighty five percent of all North American Merciers trace their origins to a single ancestor, who left the ancient region of Perche in what is now part of Normandy for the New World in the mid 1600’s. Perche remains one of the most forested regions of France, and through the Middle Ages was thickly wooded and sparsely populated in comparison to much of the rest of the country.
It is from this region and this identity that our Mercier family descends. The name Perche comes from the Latin pertica, which was the name of the great forest that in the times of the Roman Empire separated the Celtic tribes of the Carnutes and the Aulerces. The name of the Province of Perche derives from the great forest which covered the region in medieval times, and still exists in many places. The forest covered the chain of hills that divided the ridge line between the lower basins of the Loire and the Seine Rivers. This name was over the years modified to Perche in the local Romance dialect which would become French. The earliest mention of the name Perche and its etymology cited above come from the ancient chronicles of St. Grégoire of Tours in the 6th century
Going to Canada
Living in France their interest in a colony reignited, the French Crown sent Samuel de Champlain to sail in the spring of 1608. He established Quebec City as a trading post on the St. Lawrence River on July 3rd; the site turned out to be one of the best natural military strongpoints in North America.
Julien Mercier: Patriarch of eighty five percent of all Merciers in North America, Julien was born on February 27, 1621 at la Grandinière, his family’s farm in Tourouvre. The voyage across the Atlantic took two months, and although the water became putrid and the biscuits spoiled, all passengers arrived in Quebec City on August 6, 1647 without serious incident.
Julien Mercier was given land near Quebec and in October 7, 1652 entered into a marriage contract with Marie Anne Poulin. Over the course of their marriage, Julien and Marie had ten children, who have allowed for the proliferation of the Mercier name throughout North America.
Pascal Mercier: Of the eighty five percent of North American Mercier’s that descend from Julien Mercier, nearly two thirds descend from his oldest son, Pascal. The first Mercier born on North American soil, Pascal was born on March 7, 1656 in Ste. Anne de Beaupré. He was baptized six days later in Quebec City, as the parish in Ste. Anne de Beaupré was not established for another year. Like his father, Pascal was not literate, learning the trade of a farmer instead of reading and writing.
There is a lot more Mercier history, but this gives you a little insight.
Mercier’s were trades people that moved from France to Canada’s Quebec area.
They were the forefathers of most all us Mercier’s in America today.