Thomson Mason


Thomson Mason was an American barrister, planter and politician. A younger brother of George Mason IV and delegate from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention, Thomson Mason was the father of Stevens Thomson Mason, and was the great-grandfather of Stevens T. Mason, first Governor of Michigan.

Early life

Mason was born at Doeg's Neck on 14 August 1733. Born into one of the First Families of Virginia, he was the third and youngest child of George Mason III and his wife Ann Stevens Thomson. Their father died in a ferry accident when his sons were boys, but their mother supervised operations of the family's plantations as well as acquired land in what became Prince William, Fairfax and Loudoun Counties for her younger sons. Thomson Mason like his brothers received a private education suitable to his class, then traveled to Williamsburg, for studies at the College of William & Mary. He was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1751.

Career

Upon returning to Virginia, Mason was admitted to the Virginia bar and developed a private legal practice. After marrying Mary King Barnes, the daughter of Col. Barnes of Leonardtown, Maryland, across the Potomac River and a major local slave trader, Thomson Mason represented his father-in-law's interests in America during his frequent trips to England. In 1758 he also became Barnes' partner in some of the voyages in which Virginia or Maryland tobacco was shipped to Europe and slaves imported from Africa on the return journey.
Voters in Stafford County elected Mason several times as a burgess in the House of Burgesses. He served alongside Thomas Ludwell Lee in the 1756-1761 session, but neither man won re-election. Stafford County voters then elected Mason to represent them along with John Alexander from 1766 until 1772, when he was replaced by Yelverton Peyton.
In 1760, Mason had purchased a plantation he would call Raspberry Plain in Loudoun County, Virginia, which he operated using enslaved labor. Thomson built the mansion at Raspberry Plain in 1771, moved there after his first wife's death, and gained a reputation as a good host. Shortly before his death, Thomson Mason owned 47 slaves in Loudoun County. Upon Thomson's death, his eldest son Stevens Thomson Mason inherited Raspberry Plain.
Thus, during the First Virginia Revolutionary Convention in 1774, Mason represented Loudoun County, together with Francis Peyton and Josias Clapham. However, Thomson Mason became the only delegate to oppose a nonimportation resolution, and decided to retire from public life, citing ill health. Nonetheless, his firstborn son and heir, Stevens Thomson Mason, served with distinction in the Continental Army.
Three years later, Loudoun County voters elected Mason and Clapham as their representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates during the 1777 and 1778 sessions. Then, the widower Mason rekindled a romance with Elizabeth Westwood, whose husband, James Wallace of Elizabeth City County had died. They married in November 1777, but the new bride came to consider Loudoun County nearly backcountry. Perhaps as a result of her influence, Elizabeth City County voters elected Mason as one of their representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates in early 1779. Mason's resignation on June 9 was refused, until the House found him ineligible and forced a new election, in which William Henry was elected to serve alongside John Tabb.
In 1778, fellow legislators elected Mason one of five judges in the General Court (now the Supreme Court of Virginia, alongside Joseph Jones, John Blair, Thomas Ludwell Lee and Paul Carrington. This would have made him ineligible for further legislative service.
Following the American Revolutionary War, and another legislative reorganization of the state judiciary, Stafford County voters again elected the ailing Mason as one of their representatives in the House of Delegates in 1783, and he served a final term alongside veteran legislator Charles Carter. There Mason became chairman of the Committee on Courts of Justice, but did not attempt re-election. He died at Chopawamsic in 1785.

Personal life

Mason married Mary King Barnes, the only daughter of Colonel Abraham Barnes and Mary King, in 1758. He and Mary had four children:
  • Stevens Thomson Mason
  • Abram Barnes Thomson Mason
  • John Thomson Mason
  • Ann Thomson Mason Chichester
Mary died on 21 October 1771 in Prince William County, Virginia, and was interred in the Mason family graveyard at Gunston Hall, but after Thomson Mason's death she was reinterred at Raspberry Plain per his instructions to their son Stevens Thomson Mason. Six years later on 23 November 1777, Mason married Elizabeth Wallace, a sister of Worlich Westwood. Mason had four children with Elizabeth:
  • Dorothea "Anne" Anna Thomson Mason Hirst
  • Westwood Thomson Mason
  • William Temple Thomson Mason
  • George Thomson Mason

    Death and legacy

Mason died on 26 February 1785 at Chopawamsic at the age of 51. His will directed that neither Westwood Thomson Mason nor William Temple Thomson Mason should reside "on the south side of the James River or below Williamsburg before they respectively attain the age of twenty-one years, lest they should imbibe more exalted notions of their own importance than I could wish any child of mine to possess." Furthermore, he wanted his first wife to be reinterred and buried beside him, and his late infant son George buried at his head. Part of Raspberry Plain Plantation survives today as part of the Catoctin Rural Historic District, although the house that Thomson Mason built and that his descendants altered, burned and was torn down in the early 20th century and replaced in 1910 by the current edifice in the Colonial Revival style.