Thomas MERCER 1798-? & Catherine Ellen BALMER 1797-?

The MERCER family associated with Digby in the 1860s appears to be from the family of Thomas MERCER and Catherine Ellen BALMER who were married in 1825 in Childwell, Lancashire, England and had the following known children:

1. Nathan MERCER b. c1826, Prescot, LAN, Eng
2. Sarah Ann MERCER b. c1828, Prescot, LAN, Eng
3. Catherine Ellen MERCER b. c1830, Prescot, LAN, Eng m. 1865, Hugh LEWIS
4. Rigby Johnson MERCER b. c1832, d. 1899, Ballarat, Vic (unmarried)
5. Leonora Harriet MERCER b. c1836, d. 1912, Ballarat, Vic (unmarried)
6. Theresa Amelia MERCER b. c1839, d. 1922, Ballarat, Vic (unmarried)

E. H. and R. J. MERCER were listed as buyers of the first Digby town allotments in 1861.

Rigby Johnson MERCER was a Digby Storekeeper and a member of the first Common School Committee which opened in 1864.

Rigby Johnson MERCER was the Digby Postmaster until the position was taken over by Matthew TOWNSEND ca 1868 after Rigby Johnson MERCER entered the Church of England as a minister. He was a Canon in the Church of England at Soldier's Hill, Ballarat from 1875-1892. Rigby MERCER, who never married, lived with two spinster sisters and died in Ballarat in 1899 and is buried in the Old Ballarat Cemetery.