The outfitting of slaves with proper clothes, blankets, and coats was an important matter. It called for such purchases as 121 ells of "ozenbrigs" from Hunter in 1742. "Ozenbrigs" was a coarse cloth of a type made originally in Oznabruck, Germany,[105] and was traditionally the Negro field hand's raiment. Many purchases of indigo point to the dying of "Virginia" cloth, woven either on the plantation or by the weavers mentioned earlier. Presumably, shoes for the Negroes were made at Marlborough, judging from a purchase from Dick of 3-1/4 pounds of shoe thread. The domestic servants were liveried, at least after the mansion was occupied. William Thomson, a Fredericksburg tailor, made "a Coat & Breeches [for] Bob, 11/." Bob was apparently Mercer's personal manservant, who had served him since 1732. Thomson also was paid £4 16s. 2d. for "Making Liveries." The listing of such materials as "scarlet duffel" and "scarlet buttons" points to colorful outfitting of slaves.
[103] _Virginia Gazette_, July 10, 1752; BRUCE, op. cit. (footnote 5), vol. 2, pp. 107-108; ULRICH BONNELL PHILLIPS, _American Negro Slavery_ (New York & London: D. Appleton, 1918), pp. 271, 272, 381.
[104] _Virginia Gazette_, September 12, 1745.
[105] GEORGE FRANCIS DOW, _Everyday Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony_ (Boston: The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1935), p. 78.
Water transportation was essential to all the planters, most of whom owned sloops. We have seen that Mercer used a sloop for his earliest trading activities before he settled at Marlborough, and it is apparent that in the 1740's either this same sloop or another which may have replaced it still was operated by him. Hauling tobacco to Cave's warehouse, picking up a barrel of rum in Norfolk or a load of lumber on the Eastern Shore were vital to the success of the plantation. To equip the sloop, 14 yards of topsail, ship's twine, and a barrel of tar were purchased in 1747. Mercer had two Negroes named "Captain" and "Boatswain," and we may suppose that they had charge of the vessel. Such an arrangement would not have been unique, for many years after this, in 1768, Mercer wrote that "a sloop of M^r Ritchie's that came around from Rapp^a for a load of tobacco stopped at my landing; his negro skipper brought me a letter from M^r Mills...."[106]