Elms Court Explained

Elms Court
Location:	42 John R. Junkin Drive, Natchez, Mississippi
Architecture:	Greek Revival
Added:	December 2, 1977
Refnum:	77000780

Elms Court is a historic mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, United States.

Location

It is located at 542 John R. Junkin Drive in Natchez, Mississippi.

History

The mansion was built in 1835–1836.^[1] Galleries of lacy iron work said to have been brought from Belgium.^[2] In 1852, Francis Surget (1784-1856) purchased it for his daughter Jane (Surget) Merrill (1829-1866) and her husband Ayres Phillips Merrill II (1826-1883).^{[1] [3]} Upon Surget's death in 1856, the property (including the house and eight enslaved people) was bequeathed to his daughter Jane.^{[3] [1]}

It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since December 2, 1977 and may be unique among Natchez plantation houses in being owned by a supporter of the Union cause leading up to and during the Civil War.^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: SURGET FAMILY PAPERS, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Mdah.state.ms.us. 6 July 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20140415030021/http://mdah.state.ms.us/manuscripts/z1496_res.html. 15 April 2014. dead.
2. Web site: Elmscourt, Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi. Loc.gov. 6 July 2018.
3. William Kauffman Scarborough, Masters of the Big House: Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-nineteenth-century South, Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2006, p. 100 https://books.google.com/books?id=NHhh94m2PPsC&dq=%22elms+court%22+natchez+mississippi&pg=PA100
4. Book: The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 528. Ayres P. Merrill II.. 1900. J.T. White. 6 July 2018. Internet Archive.