William D. Merrick was a student of Georgetown College, a lawyer, politician, and judge. He entered Georgetown College in 1809 but left without graduating. Nevertheless he was listed as an honorary member of the Philodemic Society when it was founded in 1830.1 He later served as United States Senator from Maryland from 1838 to 1845.2
Three of his sons were Georgetown alumni: George Carr Merrick (1855), Richard Thomas Merrick, and William M. Merrick, who received an A.M. in 1831 and an honorary LL. D. in 1875.3 His daughter Catherine (? – 1877) married George Brent, another alumnus, in 1849.4
- 1"The Inauguration of the New Debating Hall," Georgetown College Journal, January 1882, Vol. X No. 4, p. 43. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044346
- 2"Honorary Degrees at Georgetown," Georgetown College Journal, August and September 1875, Vol. III No. 10, p. 112. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044283
- 3"Honorary Degrees at Georgetown," Georgetown College Journal, August and September 1875, Vol. III No. 10, p. 112. http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1044283
- 4James 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. 135. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433076015860?urlappend=%3Bseq=151
