Richard Thomas Merrick (1828 - 1885) was a student of Georgetown University, a lawyer, and Georgetown faculty member.1 In May 1880 he was elected second vice president of the Alumni Association at its first election.2
Merrick was born on January 25, 1828 in Charles County, Maryland to Hon. William D. Merrick, who was also a Georgetown alumnus (1831). Richard Merrick was a student at Georgetown before transferring to Princeton University, where he eventually graduated with a law degree. He practiced law in Washington before moving to Chicago in 1856. In 1863 however, he again returned to Washington and remained there the rest of his life. He established the firm of Merrick & Morris in 1868.3 His law partner, Martin F. Morris, was a professor at Georgetown University Law School.4
Merrick's education at Georgetown was interrupted by the Mexican American War (1846 - 1848), in which he served as a captain in charge of troops from Maryland.
In 1864 Merrick married a daughter of James C. McGuire, with whom he had seven daughters and a son. In 1873, Georgetown awarded him the honorary LL. D. degree. The next year he established the Merrick Debating Medal, an award still given by the Philodemic Society. From 1877 until his death, he was a lecturer at Georgetown's Law School, teaching constitutional law and law of nations.5
In 1866, he was a part of the defense team of John H. Surratt, who had been accused of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.6 In 1868, he was on the defense team of President Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial. In 1870 he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for U.S. Delegate to Congress from the District of Columbia. In 1882 and 1883 he represented the U.S. government as a prosecutor in the "Star Route" cases, which involved widespread corruption in the U.S. Postal Service.7
In 1877 he purchased the Peter Estate, a 400 acre tract of land near Ellicott City, Maryland, which became his summer residence.8
He died in Washington on June 23, 1885 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.9
Merrick's half-brother was Hon. William M. Merrick, who received an honorary LL. D. degree from Georgetown in 1875.10 Another half-brother, George Carr Merrick, was also a Georgetown alumnus. Richard Merrick's daughter, Louise F. Merrick, married Georgetown alumnus George Ernest Hamilton in 1892.11
- 1James S. Easby-Smith, Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789-1907, its founders, benefactors, officers, instructors and alumni. Vol. 2, New York: Lewis, 1907, pp. 57 - 58. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433076015860?urlappend=%3Bseq=74
- 2"The Alumni Meeting," Georgetown College Journal, July 1881, Vol. IX No. 10, p. 110. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044342
- 3James S. Easby-Smith, Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789-1907, its founders, benefactors, officers, instructors and alumni. Vol. 2, New York: Lewis, 1907, pp. 57 - 58. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433076015860?urlappend=%3Bseq=74
- 4Georgetown College Journal, July 1877, Vol. V No. 10, p. 117. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044303
- 5James S. Easby-Smith, Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789-1907, its founders, benefactors, officers, instructors and alumni. Vol. 2, New York: Lewis, 1907, pp. 57 - 58. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433076015860?urlappend=%3Bseq=74
- 6"The Law Department," Georgetown College Journal, January 1882, Vol. X No.4, p. 52. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044346
- 7"Death of Mr. R.T. Merrick," Georgetown College Journal, July 1885, Vol. XXIII No. 10, pp. 119 - 120. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044382
- 8Georgetown College Journal, July 1877, Vol. V No. 10, p. 113. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044303
- 9"Death of Mr. R.T. Merrick," Georgetown College Journal, July 1885, Vol. XXIII No. 10, pp. 119 - 120. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044382
- 10"Honorary Degrees at Georgetown," Georgetown College Journal, August and September 1875, Vol. III No. 10, p. 112. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044283
- 11James S. Easby-Smith, Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, 1789-1907, its founders, benefactors, officers, instructors and alumni. Vol. 2, New York: Lewis, 1907, p. 326. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433076015860?urlappend=%3Bseq=342
