It is said that "[h]e entered into holy orders, but never could engage in parochial duty, from being subject to excessive pains in his head".
Four English lines of his composition were placed over the debtors' gate of the old county gaol in Castle Street, Reading.
[2] Observations by Merrick on a fragment ascribed to Longinus are published by Nathaniel Lardner in the ‘Collection of Testimonies of Ancient Heathens on the Truth of the Christian Religion’ (Works, ed.
By April 1739 he was corresponding on classical subjects with Hermann Samuel Reimar, the Dutch philologist, and there are references to his ‘Notes on Tryphiodorus’ in Johannes Alberti's final volume of "Hesychius".
[2] Merrick bequeathed scarce and valuable books to John Loveday of Williamscote, near Banbury, and £400 to Trinity College.