name: John Mason born c. 1586 Kings Linn, Norfolkshire, England, d. c.1635 England

title: captain

occupation:

• sailor
• colonizer
• appointed second Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland's Cuper's Cove colony in 1615

parents: John Mason b. 1560 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, d. June 29, 1625 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England and Isabel Stead b. 1565 Yorkshire, England, d. England

wife:

• Ann Greene b. 1590 Saint Margaret, King Linn, Norfolkshire, England, d. 1655 Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England

children:

• with Ann Green: Ann Mason b. c.1605 St. Matthew, England, d. 1659. Married Joseph Tufton

biography

From http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/proprietary-john-mason.php

Mason, John

Governor of Cuper's Cove, 1615-1621

John Mason, born in 1586 at King's Lynn, Norfolk, was renowned as an explorer, cartographer and colonizer. His parents were John and Isabella (nee Steed) Mason, and he married Anne Greene in 1606. He matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1602, and possibly held a position in a commercial house in London.

It is also likely that Mason spent several years serving in the navy before being promoted to commander in 1610 and sent by James I to help Andrew Knox reclaim the Hebrides. The Scottish Privy Council rewarded Mason with herring, but when the Dutch refused to pay, Mason was imprisoned by Scottish fishermen. Despite being jailed, again, for piracy in Edinburgh in 1615, Mason was named governor of John Guy's colony at Cuper's Cove (now Cupid's) in Newfoundland. The reason for the appointment is unclear, but his extensive naval experience may have procured him this post. Or it may have been to compensate him for the expenditures incurred on his expeditions in Scotland.

Mason, and possibly his wife, landed at Cuper's Cove in June 1616. During his stay in Newfoundland, Mason set out on a series of voyages and drew up the first known English map of the island. Published in William Vaughan's Cambrensium Caroleia in 1625, the map included previously established placenames as well as new ones such as Bristol's Hope and Butter Pots, near Renews.

Mason probably stayed on at the colony without interruption until the fall of 1619. Tired of the disputes between his settlers and the migratory fishermen, he returned to England at this time in an attempt to have settlers' rights increased. Back in Cuper's Cove, the colonists, who were still at odds with the fishermen, were uncertain if their governor would ever return. In an attempt to give an accurate account of the island's geography, climate and natural resources, in 1620 Mason published a book while in England entitled A Briefe Discourse of the New-Found-Land with the situation, temperature, and commodities thereof, inciting our nation to go forward in the hopefull plantation begunne.

After 1620, he appears to have cut his ties with Newfoundland. In 1620 he was commissioned by the Lord Admiral to resolve the problem of piracy, and he may have indeed returned to the island at that time. However, in 1621, Mason was in New England consulting with Sir William Alexander about the possible colonization of Nova Scotia and with Sir Ferdinando Gorges about founding a colony in the province of Maine. He founded the colony of New Hampshire in 1629, and in 1635 he was appointed first vice-admiral of New England. He died in December of the same year as he was about to return to the plantations there.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mason_%28governor%29

Captain John Mason (1586 to 1635) was born at King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, and educated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge.[1] He was a sailor and colonizer. Mason was appointed the second Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland's Cuper's Cove colony in 1615, succeeding John Guy. Mason arrived on the island in 1616 and explored much of the territory. He compiled a map of the island and wrote and published a short tract (or "Discourse") of his findings.

Mason drew up the first known English map of the island of Newfoundland. Published in William Vaughan's Cambrensium Caroleia in 1625, the map included previously established placenames as well as new ones such as Bristol's Hope and Butter Pots, near Renews. His tract entitled A Briefe Discourse of the New-Found-Land with the situation, temperature, and commodities thereof, inciting our nation to go forward in the hopefull plantation begunne, was published in 1620 by Mason while in England.

In 1620 King James I's Privy Council issued Mason a commission and provided him with a ship to suppress piracy in Newfoundland. Mason ceased to be Cuper's Cove governor in 1621 and apparently he was not replaced, although the settlement continued to be occupied throughout the seventeenth century.

Upon returning to England, Mason consulted with Sir William Alexander about possibly colonizing Nova Scotia. In 1622, Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges received a patent from the Council for New England for all the territory lying between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers.[2] In 1629 they divided the grant along the Piscataqua River, with Mason receiving the southern portion.[2] The colony was recharted as the Province of New Hampshire. It included most of the southeastern part of the current state of New Hampshire, as well as portions of present-day Massachusetts north of the Merrimack.

Although Mason never set foot in New England, he was appointed first vice-admiral of New England in 1635. He died that same year while preparing for his first voyage to the new colony

family and legacy

From Dictionary of National Biography

... Before, however, he could revisit the plantations, he was taken ill and died early in December 1635. The death of so energetic a churchman and royalist was regarded as a divine favour by the puritans of Massachusetts Bay. By his will, dated 26 Nov. and proved on 22 Dec. 1635, he left one thousand acres of land towards the maintenance of a church, and another thousand acres for that of a school in New Hampshire. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. A brass monument was erected to his memory in the church of the Domus Dei at Portsmouth by some residents in New Hampshire (including some of Mason's own descendants) in 1874.
.... Mason was married on 29 Oct. 1606 to Anne, second daughter of Edward Greene (d. 1619) of London, goldsmith, by whom he left one daughter, Anne, who married Joseph Tufton of Betchworth, Surrey. Robert Hayman in his Quodlibets (1628, p. 31) addressed verses to the worshipfull Captaine, John Mason and to the modest and discreet gentlewoman Mistress Mason. Mason's widow died in 1655.
Mason's rights in New Hampshire were sold to Governor Samuel Allen in 1691, and proved a fruitful source of litigation to that official and his heirs; in January 1746 John Tufton Mason, a descendant, disposed of his rights for 1,500l. to twelve gentlemen of Portsmouth, henceforth called the Masonian Proprietors (cf. C. L. Woodbury, Old Planter in New England, 1885).

From http://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44806616.pdf The Mason Title by Otis Grant Hammond (1916) page 3

Captain John Mason died late in 1635, and in his will was dated November 26 of that year. He devised his province of New Hampshire to his grandson, John Tufton, on condition that he should take the name Mason, and of he should die without issue the lands were to go to his brother, Robert Tufton, on the same condition. These were the sons of Mason's only child, Ann, who married Joseph Tufton.

the plaque

From http://www.memorialsinportsmouth.co.uk/churches/royal_garrison/maso...

DD: John Scribner Jenness. Charles Levy Woodbury. Charles Wesley Tuttle. Alexander Hamilton Ladd. Charles Henry Bell. Eliza Appleton Haven. Charlotte Maria Haven (All of New Hampshire U.S.)

• TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF CAPTN
• JOHN MASON, CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY
• TREASURER OF THE ARMY-CAPTAIN OF SOUTH
• SEA CASTLE-GOVERNOR OF THE COLONY OF
• NEWFOUNDLAND-PATENTEE AND FOUNDER OF
• NEW HAMPSHIRE IN AMERICA-VICE ADMIRAL
• OF NEW ENGLAND-BORN 1586 DIED 1635
• THIS FAITHFUL CHURCHMAN DEVOTED PATRIOT
• AND GALLANT OFFICER OF WHOM ENGLAND AND
• AMERICA WILL EVER BE PROUD WAS BURIED
• IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
• RESPUBLICA NEO HANTONIEN SIS 1784.

A Second Plaque.

There is no record of the exact date when the plaque in the Garrison Church was unveiled but it may have been in 1877. The logic for picking this date is that a century later in 1977 some of the Piscataqua Pioneers from New Hampshire donated an almost identically worded memorial plaque to the Cathedral of St. Thomas's in High Street. A suitable moment for doing so may have been the centenary of the unveiling of the original plaque.

supporting data

From Cambridge Alumni Database link

John MASON

• Approx. lifespan: 1586 to 1635
• Matric. pens. from Peterhouse 1602:10MT:
• doubtless s. of John MASON of Lynn, Norfolk
• Bapt. at St Margaret's, Lynn 1586:12:11
• Resided two years
• Engaged in trade in London but early attracted to foreign adventure
• In 1610 appointed by James I in command of a Squadron sent to reclaim the New, Hebrides
• Governor of the plantation of Newfoundland Canada , 1615
• In 1626 Commissary-General for victualling Buckingham's expedition
• Treasurer and Paymaster of the Army 1627
• Returned to New England , USA 1631
• Received a patent, with Sir F. Gorges, under which New Hampshire , USA was founded
• Vice-Admiral of New England , USA 1635
• Died 1635
• Buried in Westminster Abbey. Will, P.C.C.
• ( D.N.B.; T. A. Walker ; a different identification is given in Al. Oxon. )

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• http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/m/i/s/Stacia-Misner/GENE2-0078.html
• https://www.mun.ca/rels/hrollmann/relsoc/texts/mason.html
• https://www.landofthebrave.info/john-mason.htm

  ---

Mason, John (1586-1635)

Founder of New Hampshire

Sourced from Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 36 by Thomas Seccombe ‎

MASON, JOHN (1586–1635), founder of New Hampshire, only son of John and Isabella Mason (born Steed), was born at King's Lynn, and was baptised in St. Margaret's Church in that town on 11 Dec. 1586. He matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, as ‘of Southants, pleb.,’ on 25 June 1602 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714). He is said to have obtained a place in a commercial house in London, and had probably conducted successful voyages prior to 1610, when he was appointed by James I to the command of two ships of war and two pinnaces, despatched to assist Andrew Knox [q. v.] in his reclamation of the Hebrides. While Mason was engaged upon this service the first English plantation of Newfoundland was effected under John Guy of Bristol. Guy resigned the governorship in 1615, and partly, it would appear, by way of compensation for disbursements made on his Scottish expedition, Mason was appointed in his place. The new governor at once set about a thorough exploration of the island. Writing to a friend and patron, Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet, ‘from the plantacion of Cuper's Cove in Terra Nova ult. Augusti 1617,’ he expresses his intention to construct a map with a particular relation of the several parts, natures, and qualities of the country. His map was completed in 1625, and prefixed to Sir William Vaughan's ‘Golden Fleece’ (‘Cambrensium Caroleia,’ London, 1625). To this rare little work Mason, like his predecessor Guy, also contributed some complimentary Latin verse. There are some earlier maps of Terra Nova by foreign hands (one having been found in the Vatican, dated 1556), but Mason's is the first English map, and the earliest representation of the configuration of the coast (cf. Howley, Eccles. Hist. of Newfoundland; Winsor, Hist. of America, viii. 190). In 1620 he despatched to his former correspondent ‘A Briefe Discovrse of the Newfoundland, with the situation, temperature, and commodities thereof, inciting our Nation to goe forward in that hopefull plantation begunne.’ This extremely rare work (of which no copy is believed to exist in America, and three only in England, one in the British Museum) was printed by Andro Hart, Edinburgh, 1620 (seven leaves, no pagination). ‘Unpolished and rude, bearing the countries badge where it was patched,’ Mason's tract was mainly designed to interest the Scots in settling a colony in Newfoundland. It describes the climate, the products of the earth, the growth of European vegetables, and the greatness of the fishing interest. In the spring of 1621 Mason returned to England; he was at once in request, being consulted by Sir William Alexander [q. v.] (afterwards Earl of Stirling) about the proposed settlement of Nova Scotia, and conferring with Sir Ferdinando Gorges [q. v.], treasurer of the council for New England, with respect to the systematic planting of the province of Maine (Gorges, Description of New England, Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 3rd ser. vi. 78). A patent for all the land lying between the Nahumheik and Merrimack rivers was granted to Mason by the council on 9 March 1621–2. Another grant was made him jointly with Gorges in August. He appears to have sailed in the following year in the capacity of deputy-governor, and built a stone house at New Plymouth. In 1624, however, he returned to England in the expectation of finding employment in the war with Spain, and took up his abode with his family at Portsmouth, in the house in which a few years afterwards Buckingham was assassinated by Felton. In 1626 he was appointed by Buckingham commissary general for victualling the Cadiz expedition (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 25 May 1626), though he was described by Lord Wimbledon as deserving a better office. In the following year he was accordingly appointed treasurer and paymaster of the English army (ib. 16 May 1627). His letters in this capacity show him to have been active, capable, and not afraid of telling his superiors unpalatable truths (ib. 19 Jan., 7 May, &c.). On the establishment of peace in 1629 Mason set out once more for New England, with patents for lands on the Iroquois lakes. He, Gorges, and seven other traders were associated under the name of the Laconia (Lake Country) Company, with the intention of forming a permanent agricultural settlement. An agent of Mason's brought over one hundred Danish oxen, and among other articles imported was a set of church furniture, Mason being a zealous Anglican, in consequence of which he has been persistently ignored or reviled by the puritan historians of New England. In 1631 Gorges and Mason ‘joined with them 6 merchants in London,’ and received from the council a new grant, dated 3 Nov., of a tract of land on the Piscataqua river. The association infused new life, both into the original colony and into the previous settlements on the Piscataqua, which became known henceforth by the name of New Hampshire. There was a constant influx of new settlers who cleared the land and built permanent houses.

Mason returned to England early in 1634, and was appointed by the government captain of Southsea Castle, and inspector of the forts and castles on the south coast. He had in the previous year been appointed on the council for New England, which frequently met at his house in Fenchurch Street (Colonial Corresp. 4 Nov. 1631, p. 15). He was also appointed treasurer of the ‘Association of the Three Kingdoms for a General Fishery’ (1633), and on 1 Oct. 1635 he was honoured by his nomination as first ‘vice-admiral of New England’ under Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Before, however, he could revisit the plantations, he was taken ill and died early in December 1635. The death of so energetic a churchman and royalist was regarded as a divine favour by the puritans of Massachusetts Bay. By his will, dated 26 Nov. and proved on 22 Dec. 1635, he left one thousand acres of land towards the maintenance of a church, and another thousand acres for that of a school in New Hampshire. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. A brass monument was erected to his memory in the church of the Domus Dei at Portsmouth by some residents in New Hampshire (including some of Mason's own descendants) in 1874.

Mason was married on 29 Oct. 1606 to Anne, second daughter of Edward Greene (d. 1619) of London, goldsmith, by whom he left one daughter, Anne, who married Joseph Tufton of Betchworth, Surrey. Robert Hayman in his ‘Quodlibets’ (1628, p. 31) addressed verses to ‘the worshipfull Captaine, John Mason’ and to ‘the modest and discreet gentlewoman Mistress Mason.’ Mason's widow died in 1655.

Mason's rights in New Hampshire were sold to Governor Samuel Allen in 1691, and proved a fruitful source of litigation to that official and his heirs; in January 1746 John Tufton Mason, a descendant, disposed of his rights for 1,500l. to twelve gentlemen of Portsmouth, henceforth called the ‘Masonian Proprietors’ (cf. C. L. Woodbury, Old Planter in New England, 1885).

[Captain John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire, a memoir by C. W. Tuttle in J. W. Dean's edition of Mason's tract, together with illustrative historical documents, for the Prince Soc. Boston, 1887; cf. Doyle's English in America, Puritan Colonies, i. 196, 277. &c.; Brown's Genesis of the United States, ii. 945; Cal. State Papers, Colonial (Amer. and West Indies, 1574–1660), pp. 25, 138, 153, 157, 204, 210, 214, 246, 293, 402; Belknap's History of New Hampshire, 1831, i. 3, 4, 8, 9, 14, 15; New Hampshire Documents, ed. J. S. Jenness, i. 45, 54, 55, &c.; Waters's Chesters of Chicheley, ii. 549; Purchas his Pilgrimes, 1625, iv. 1876–91; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vii. 265; Mason's Discourse, reprinted in the Bannatyne Club's Royal Letters, Charters, and Tracts relating to the Colonisation of New Scotland, 1867.]