George Mason

In 1750, he married Anne Eilbeck, the daughter of William Eilbeck, a wealthy planter in Charles County, Maryland. They had five sons and four daughters in 23 years of marriage.

Mason was devastated by the death of his wife, Ann Eilbeck Mason, in 1773 at the age of 39 from complications following the birth of twins, who died in infancy.

He remained a widower until 1780 when he married Sarah Brent, the fifty-year-old daughter of George Brent, a family friend. He did not have any children by her.

George Mason was born on December 11, 1725 to George and Ann Thomson Mason. When he was 10, his father drowned in the Potomac, and his mother was left to raise George and his two siblings.

He went to live with his uncle John Mercer. His uncle’s 1,500 volume library cultivated a habit of reading in him. He studied under tutors, and attended a private academy in Maryland.

At 21, he inherited approximately 20,000 acres spread across several counties in Virginia and Maryland. He was a neighbour of George Washington. He took interest in public affairs from an early age.

George Mason was a justice of the Fairfax County court. He contested, but lost the County election for House of Burgesses in 1748. The following year, he became a partner in the Ohio Company.

The Ohio Company speculated in land, and lobbied for settlement to the west of the Appalachians. The British revoked the company’s rights, He wrote “Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with Some Remarks upon Them”.

The impact of “Extracts from the Virginia Charters” is evident in the 1783 peace treaty with Great Britain, which fixed the Anglo-American boundary at the Great Lakes instead of the Ohio River.

Mason acted as a supply agent for troops who were commanded by George Washington when war broke out on the frontier. It earned him the rank of colonel.

In 1759, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and represented Fairfax County. He was also a trustee of the city of Alexandria, Virginia.

In 1774, Mason drafted the Fairfax Resolves that challenged Parliament’s authority over the colonies. He called for a boycott of British goods, and proposed a continental congress to coordinate American resistance to British policy.

He was a delegate at the Fifth Virginia Convention in Williamsburg in 1776. He drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and the Virginia Constitution, both of which were adopted after alterations.