Miers Fisher

Miers was born in Philadelphia, the third son of Joshua Fisher, the Quaker merchant and mapmaker.^[1] He grew up in Philadelphia (110 S. Front St.) and his family had a country home on the Schuylkill River called "The Cliffs", which is now the site of Sedgley Woods in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.^[4]

Miers married Sarah Redwood on February 17, 1774, daughter of William Redwood and Hannah Holmes. They had 16 children, of which five lived past the age of 30.^[4] In 1808, their son Miers Fisher Jr. (1786–1813), a traveler, was witness to early uprisings in the so-called Peninsular War in Spain, and to Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.^[5]

In 1795, Fisher purchased an estate near Fox Chase in Philadelphia County, which he called "Ury".^[4]

Fisher studied law with Benjamin Chew, who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.^[1] He was admitted to the Bar in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex counties (now Delaware Bar) in February 1769. He began practicing law in Philadelphia in June 1770.^[4]

John Adams, who would later become President of the United States, wrote the following description of Fisher in his journal: "September 7th, 1774. Dined with Miers Fisher, a young Quaker and a lawyer. We saw his library, which is clever. But this plain Friend, and his plain, though pretty wife, with her thees and her thous, had provided us the most costly entertainment."^[1]

During the American Revolutionary War, Fisher and his brothers were exiled in Winchester, Virginia, in 1777, after refusing to swear an oath of allegiance and deliver their mercantile firm's business records to the authorities. They were under house arrest for one year and two of their company, Thomas Gilpin and John Hunt, died in exile. They were eventually pardoned by George Washington and allowed to return to Philadelphia after the British evacuated.^[3]