Thomas Mason (1770–1800)

American politician

For other people called Thomas Mason, see Thomas Mason (disambiguation).

Thomas Mason

Member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing Prince William County
In office
December 2, 1799 – September 18, 1800

Serving with John Pope, Mathew Harrison

Preceded by| Edmund Brooke
Succeeded by| Richard Brent
Personal details
Born| May 1, 1753
Fairfax County, Virginia
Died| September 18, 1800(1800-09-18) (aged 30)
Woodbridge, Prince William County, Virginia
Nationality| American
Spouse| Sarah Barnes Hooe
Children| 4
Parent(s)| George Mason IV
Ann Eilbeck
Occupation| planter, businessperson, politician

Thomas Mason (May 1, 1753 – September 18, 1800)[1][2] was an American businessman, planter and politician. As a son of George Mason, a Founding Father of the United States, Mason was a scion of the prominent Mason political family.

## Early life and education[edit]

Mason was born at Gunston Hall in Fairfax County, Virginia on May 1, 1770.[1][2] He was the youngest child and son of George Mason IV and his first wife Ann Eilbeck, who would die three years later, of complications giving birth to Mason's youngest sister.[1][2] In 1775, his maternal grandmother Sarah Eilbeck died, and according to the terms of her will, young Thomas became the master of an enslaved boy of about his age, James, son of Moll (27 slaves were willed to the 7 Mason children).[3] While a Thomas Mason represented Norfolk County in the House of Burgesses in 1696, these Masons were descended from the emigrant George Mason who represented Stafford County in that session.[4]

Thomas Mason received a private education suitable to his class. His eldest sister, Nancy assumed her mother's position as mistress of the house until their widowed father remarried seven years later, to the spinster Sarah Brent, who was familiar with running large estates from her duties in caring for her father, an ally of the Mason family.[5] The elder Mason preferred Scottish tutors for his sons, and David Constable, a graduate of the College of Aberdeen, arrived at Gunston Hall in 1774 and (despite refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance to Virginia) remained until 1781, when he left for property owned by his family on St. Christopher Island in the British West Indies.[6] After his departure, the elder Mason sent Thomas and his slightly elder brother John to a school established by the Reverend Buchanan in Stafford County (near his Aquia Church parish). In 1788, although John Mason was sent to study in Maryland, Thomas and his step cousin George Graham were sent to the newly established Fredericksburg Academy in Fredericksburg, Virginia, one of the trustees of which was his cousin James Mercer.[7] After completing his formal education at Fredericksburg Academy, Mason trained to be a merchant under an apprenticeship with William Hodgson in Alexandria, much as his slightly older brother John Mason had with Alexandria merchant John Hartshorne (although the other elder brothers received no such apprenticeship).[8]

## Career[edit]

Following his apprenticeship in Alexandria, Mason's father set him up with a business in Richmond.[2] By that date, John Mason had also relocated to Richmond, where he was a partner in Fenwick and Mason, which traded with merchants in Bordeaux, France, then in turmoil due to the French Revolution. Their father George Mason instructed John to mentor his younger brother, and Thomas may have worked as the family debt collector or as a merchant in his own right by his father's death in late 1792.[9]

He and John presented their father's 1773 will (written shortly after his first wife's death) and at least one authenticating witness (subscribers having been Gustavus Scott, Elizabeth Bronaugh, Ann Cockburn, John West Jr., Robert Graham and John Davidson)[10] to the Fairfax County Court. By then no guardians for the children were necessary and their eldest brother George (one named executor) died in 1796 and the other named executor Martin Cockburn having declined executor's duties, John and Thomas Mason became the executors of their father's estate, and wealthy. By September 25, 1797, Thomas Mason relocated back to Prince William county and operated a store. He may have been the wealthiest man in Prince William county by the time of his (early) death in 1800, although he also had significant debts. In 1800, Thomas Mason owned four land parcels totaling 1,003 acres and paid the most of any county resident in personal property tax, including on one tithed white servant, 21 adult enslaved blacks, four black slaves between 13 and 16 years old, and 33 enslaved blacks either considered children or elderly.[11]

Thomas Mason also began his short political career, as Prince William County voters elected him as one of their delegates to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1799, and re-elected him the following year, although he died before the next session.[12]

Thomas Mason inherited his father's properties on the southern side of the Occoquan River across from Colchester as well as the right to operate the Occoquan ferry.[2][13]

Mason named his plantation Woodbridge after the wooden toll bridge he built in 1795 to replace the ferry.[2][13] Sources differ as to which renowned inventor and engineer designed the bridge, Theodore Burr of Connecticut (not definitively known to have worked south of Port Deposit, Maryland),[2][13] or Timothy Palmer of Massachusetts, who was constructing the Little Falls Bridge across the Potomac River in 1795 and a preeminent bridgebuilder of the era, perhaps best known for a bridge in Philadelphia (Mason requested a higher toll rate from the Virginia General Assembly in 1797 based on the high cost of Massachusetts workmen).[14] The toll bridge carried King's Highway (present-day U.S. Route 1) across the Occoquan River.[13]

## Marriage and children[edit]

The orphaned Thomas Mason married Sarah Barnes Hooe, daughter of Gerard Hooe and Sarah Barnes, at Lexington plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia on April 22, 1793.[1][2] Sarah was a sister of his elder brother George Mason V's wife, Elizabeth "Betsey" Mary Ann Barnes Hooe.[2] The couple had four children:[1][2]

* Patsy Mason Lake (1796-1873)
* Elizabeth Mason[1][2]
* Gerard Alexander Mason (December 1793-December 18, 1849)[1][2]
* Leannah Mason Barron (1798-1824)[1][2]
* Thomas Mason (1800-1828)[1][2]

## Death and legacy[edit]

This Thomas Mason died, aged 30, on September 18, 1800, at Lexington plantation house, the nearby residence of his brother George's widow and her second husband (and Mason's former school mate) George Graham.[15] Richard Brent filled the remainder of his term in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Prince William County.[2] His widow Sarah B. Wilson filed no will, and pursuant to Virginia law was able to live the final 15 years of her life in their family home, Woodbridge with their eldest son Gerard, before also dying intestate.[16] On October 8, 1800, the Prince William County Court accepted an inventory of Thomas's estate, including enslaved persons, performed by future delegate George Graham and others.[17]

Thomas Mason's family continued to own the 500-acre Woodbridge plantation and bridge until 1851, when it was auctioned off following Gerard Alexander Mason's death. Gerard Mason was known as a harsh master, perhaps embodying his famous grandfather's aphorism, "Every Master is born a petty tyrant". He frequently advertised for runaway slaves with visible signs of physical injury, but had been acquitted in 1846 of murdering an enslaved woman named Katy whom he had stomped to death and buried months after beating her so severely that she could not walk.[18] A neighbor found Gerard's (also sometimes spelled Jared's) corpse with head smashed by an axe in his own ferry house.[19] Despite neighbors' petitions to the governor to commute her execution (to sale and transportation out of the state), on the grounds that Agnes had also been repeatedly abused, she was hanged.[20]

Many of his descendants would also share the name Thomas Mason. Thomas Mason's grandson, by his youngest son, Thomas Jr., Berry Mason lived in Charles County, Maryland until his death. His will dated July 13, 1852, probated in Maryland, specifically forbade any of his property (if he had no living children) even if his (also unmarried) brother Thomas Mason had children from passing in any contingency to any Hooe, Barron or Grymes. In 1817 this Thomas Mason's eldest daughter, Leannah, had married William Barron and bore Thomas Mason Barron in Washington D.C. before that family moved to Kentucky. Thomas M. Barron married Penelope McFarland in 1842, and the only son of their seven children, William Thomas Barron, married and eventually became the grandfather of the first wife of hotelier Conrad Hilton (Mary Barron).[21]

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Gunston Hall. "Thomas Mason". Gunston Hall. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved March 25, 2009.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Gunston Hall. "Children of George Mason of Gunston Hall". Gunston Hall. Retrieved March 25, 2009.
3. ^ Steven B. Shwartzman, Fortunate Son: Thomas Mason of Woodbridge (Prince William County Historical Commission 1997) p.12
4. ^ Leonard pp. 56-57
5. ^ Steven B. Shwartzman, Fortunate Son: Thomas Mason of Woodbridge (Prince William County Historical Commission 1997) p.8
6. ^ Shwartzman p. 15
7. ^ Shwartzman p. 16
8. ^ Shwartzman pp. 19-20
9. ^ Shwartzman pp. 20-23
10. ^ Robert Rutland, Papers of George Mason, Vol. 1 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1970) pp. 147-160
11. ^ Shwartzman pp. 26-27
12. ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 217, 221
13. ^ a b c d Stephen E. Phinney, Prince William County Historical Commission (November 1997). "Woodbridge is 200 Years Old!". Historic Prince William. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved March 25, 2009.
14. ^ Shwarzman pp. 38-39
15. ^ Shwartzman p. 47, citing Richmond Examiner Sept. 30, 1800
16. ^ Shwartzman p. 50
17. ^ Shwartzman p. 53
18. ^ Tamika Nunley, The Demands of Justice (University of North Carolina Press 2023 ISBN 978-1-4696-7312-7) p. 110
19. ^ Shwartzman p. 49 citing Alexandria Gazette of Jan. 10, 1850
20. ^ Nunley pp. 107-111
21. ^ Shwartzman pp. 49-50

* v
* t
* e

The Mason family

First generation|

George Mason I

Second generation|

George Mason II

Third generation|

George Mason III

Fourth generation|

George Mason IV
Thomson Mason (1733–1785)

Fifth generation|

George Mason V
William Mason
Thomson Mason (1759–1820)
Stevens Thomson Mason (1760–1803)
John Thomson Mason (1765–1824)
John Mason
Thomas Mason
William Temple Thomson Mason

Sixth generation|

Thomson Francis Mason
John Thomson Mason (1787–1850)
Armistead Thomson Mason
Richard Chichester Mason
Richard Barnes Mason
James M. Mason
John Thomson Mason (1815–1873)

Seventh generation|

Stevens Thomson Mason (1811–1843)
Beverley Randolph Mason
Arthur Pendleton Mason
William Pinckney Mason

Eighth generation|

Kate Mason Rowland
Richard Nelson Mason
Lucy Randolph Mason

Mason family residences
Accokeek
Analostan Island
Araby
Chestnut Hill
Chopawamsic
Clarens
Clermont
Colross
Gunston Hall
Hollin Hall
Huntley
Lexington
Locust Hill
Mattawoman
Montpelier
Okeley Manor
Raspberry Plain
Selma
Stafford Hall
Temple Hall
Woodbridge

* v
* t
* e

George Mason

United States
Founding events|

* Drafted, 1769 Virginia Association resolutions
* Primary author, 1774 Fairfax Resolves
* Delegate, Fifth Virginia Convention
* Primary author, 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights
* "All men are created equal"
* Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
* Freedom of the press
* Freedom of religion
* Consent of the governed
* Baseless search and seizure
* Cruel and unusual punishment
* Speedy trial
* 1776 Virginia Constitution
* Seal of Virginia
* 1785 Mount Vernon Conference
* 1787 Constitutional Convention
* "high crimes and misdemeanors"
* Virginia Ratifying Convention
* Co-father, United States Bill of Rights
* history
* Founding Father

Writings inspired|

* Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789, France)
* United States Bill of Rights (1789)

Life|

* Chopawamsic plantation
* Gunston Hall
* On slavery
* Ohio Company

Legacy|

* George Mason Memorial
* George Mason University
* George Mason Stadium
* George Mason, Virginia
* George Mason Memorial Bridge
* George Mason High School
* 18-cent postage stamp

Related|

* Age of Enlightenment
* American Enlightenment
* American Revolution
* patriots
* Wilson v. Mason
* Hollin Hall
* Woodbridge plantation
* Mason's Island

Family|

* George Mason V (son)
* William Mason (son)
* Thomson Mason (son)
* John Mason (son)
* Thomas Mason (son)
* George Mason III (father)
* Thomson Mason (brother)
* George Mason II (grandfather)

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*[e]: Edit this template