verses praising the Scottish court of session judges and begging for their favour in his case, but to no avail as he lost the case; however, in 1675 he was awarded compensation of the cost of coming from Ireland to fight the case. Before his death he had been working on a "big book" chronicling events since 1638. But it was not completed by his death and David Stevenson says "That this never appeared need be little lamented, for 'Mercer's writings are mainly valuable for their autobiographical details. The majority of his verses are mere doggerel, and display an inordinate self-conceit' (DNB). But his conceit did at least ensure that enough information survived to reconstruct the outline of his life." Mercer has been mistakenly credited by some with writing The Moderate Cavalier, or, The Soldier's Description of Ireland which was published in 1675, but the William Mercer who wrote it had served as a Royalist in the English Civil War. Bibliography A Description of the Creation (1632) Angliae speculum, or, England's Looking-Glasse (1646) Elegy to Sir Henry Mervyn (1646) Elegy to Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (1646) A Welcom in a Poem (1669) verses praising the Scottish court of session judges and begging for their favour in his case (1672) News from Parnassus, in the Abstracts and Contents of Three Crown'd Chronicles (1682) See also Major Mercer of the Worcestershire horse Notes References David Laing, "Some account of Lieut.-Colonel William Mercer, Author of 'Angliæ Speculum, OR ENGLAND'S LOOKING-GLASSE', London 1646", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume 3 1862 pp 341–357, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. David Stevenson, 'Mercer, William (b. c.1605, d. in or after 1675)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 retrieved 4 December 2008 cites: D. Laing, 'Some account of Lieut.-Colonel William Mercer', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 3 (1857–60), 341–57 DNB M. Wood, ed., Extracts from the records of the burgh of Edinburgh, 1626–1641, [8] (1936) Alexander Ferrier Mitchell and J. Christie, eds., The records of the commissions of the general assemblies of the Church of Scotland, 3, Scottish History Society, 58 (1909), 363, 416 Scottish military personnel 17th-century Scottish people People of the English Civil War 17th-century Scottish poets