NORTHERN NEW YORK
Genealogical and family history of northern New York: a record of the achievements of her people
in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation.
New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co. 1910.



MASON



Transcribed by Coralynn Brown



Sampson Mason was the American root of this family. Of this fact we have not only the testimony of Backus, in his church history (whose wife, Susannah Mason, was a great-granddaughter of Sampson in the line of his son, Samuel Mason) but the ancient records of the towns of Rehoboth and Swansea. By the cuncurrent authority of tradition, and the history above referred to, Sampson Mason was an officer, or as Baylies has it in his historical memoir of Plymout, "a dragoon" in the republican army of Oliver Cromwell. Backus says that he came over to this country upon the turn of times in England. If by this he means the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Mr. Backus ws certainly mistaken, for Sampson Mason came over at least ten years before that time. This fact, however, does not at all countervail the evidence that he belonged to the army of Cromwell, who raised his celebrated "Ironsides" troop of horse at Cambridge in 1642. At the battle of Marston Moor, in 1644, he became lieutenant of the army of Parliament. And if Sampson Mason were a dragoon, as Baylies asserts, it is not improbable that he belonged to this troop which performed such prodigies of valor at the battle of Marton Moor.

The earliest notice of Sampson yet discovered in this country is found in the Suffolk record of the settlement of the estate of Edward Bullock, of Dorchester. His will is dated July 25, 1649, and a debt is specified as due to Sampson Mason for wife's shoes. The registry of deeds for Suffolk shows that in 1651 Sampson Mason purchased a house and land in Dorchester of William Betts; that he afterwards sold the same to Jacob Hewins and removed to Rehoboth. By vote of the town of Rehoboth, Dec. 9, 1657, he was given permission to buy land and settle in that town. As a Baptist, as he certainly was, this permission to sojourn was all that Sampson Mason could expect from his Puritanical friends at Rehoboth. Their records show that Samuel Luther and other Baptists who afterwards became prominent men in the old colony, instead of being admitted as freemen, had accorded to them only the privileges of sojourners. At an early period, however, grants of land south of Rehoboth were obtained from the Indians, and in 1667, Capt. Thomas Willett, Rev. John Miles "and others, their neighbors at Wannamoisett and parts adjacent" were confirmed in their title to those lands and erected into the town Swansea by the general court at Plymouth. In the town of Swansea the religious profession of a Baptist never worked any forfeiture of civil rights.

The name of Sampson Mason appears as one of the original associates and Baylies says that he became one of the founders of the town. That he became a man of some means is to be inferred from the part he took in founding Swansea and also from the fact that he was one of the original proprietors of the "North Purchase," later Attleborough, Mass. Among those in Rehoboth who made advances to the fund for defense was his widow who was credited with thirteen pounds, ten pence, or rather he made the contribution and died in the midst of the war. The widow settled whatever estate he had left after the ravages of the Indians. It is believed that while he belonged to the Baptist church, and was a proprietor of the town of Swansea, he retained his residence in Rehoboth, where his children were born and where he and his wife died.
Sampson Mason died in 1676 and was buried Sept. 15, 1676. His widow died Aug. 29, 1714. Her maiden name was Mary Butterworth.
Children:
1. Noah, born, it is supposed, in Dorchester; married (first) Martha ____; she died Feb. 6, 1676; married (second) Dec. 6, 1677, Sarah Fitch; died March 16, 1718.
2. Sampson, born it is supposed, in Dorchester; soldier in King Philip's war, 1675-76.
3. Samuel, born about 1656, it is supposed, in Dorchester; died Jan. 21, 1743-44.
4. John, born it is supposed, in Dorchester; died March 18, 1683-84, aged twenty six.
5. Sarah, born Feb. 15, 1658, in Rehoboth.
6. Mary, Feb. 7, 1660-61.
7. James, Oct. 30, 1661.
8. Joseph, March 6, 1663-64.
9. Bethia, Oct. 15, 1665.
10. Isaac, July 15, 1667, mentioned below.
11. Pelatiah, April 1, 1669.
12. Benjamin, Oct. 20, 1670.
13. Thankful, Oct. 27, 1672.

(II) Isaac, son of Sampson Mason, was born July 15, 1667, died Jan. 25, 1742. He was the first deacon of the Second Baptist Church of Swansea, a position he held for fifty years. His very numerous descendants are found in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and other states.
He married Hannah ____.
Children:
1. Hannah, born Jan. 9, 1694-95, died Feb. 26, 1697.
2. Mary, Jan. 26, 1696-97, died March 4, 1697.
3. Isaac, Dec. 26, 1698.
4. Sampson, Feb. 24, 1700-01.
5. Hezekiah, June 6, 1704.
6. Nathan, May 10, 1705, mentioned below.
7. Olive, Aug. 20, 1706, at Swansea.
8. Hannah, March, 1710.
9. Benjamin, April 10, 1711.
10. Mary, May 21, 1713.

(III) Nathan, son of Isaac Mason, was born at Rehoboth, May 10, 1705. He was a blacksmith, and after 1750 lived in Windham county, Connecticut.
He married, Aug. 26, 1731, Lillis, daughter of John and Hannah (Tillinghast) Hale. She was born Oct. 2, 1714. She married (second), Jan. 30, 1763, Miah Pierce, and died Dec. 15, 1797.
He lived near Hortonville, in Swansea.
Children, born in Swansea:
1. Samson, Sept. 27, 1732.
2. Barnard, March 15, 1735.
3. Jesse, March 21, 1737.
4. Lillis, May 8, 1739.
5. Nathan, Feb. 21, 1741.
6. Freelove, April 26, 1743.
7. Innocent, Aug. 20, 1745.
8. Mary, June 30, 1748.
9. Aaron, June 29, 1749.
10. Rosanna.
11. Sybil.
12. Levi, Oct. 15, 1752.
13. Pardon, Aug. 14, 1758.
14. Nancy, married Nathan Wood.

(IV) Aaron, son of Nathan Mason, was born at Swansea, Mass., June 29, 1749. He and his brothers went to Lancesborough, Berkshire county, Mass., and he located at Manchester, Bennington county, Vermont. He was a soldier from Manchester in the revolution in Captain Daniel Brown's company in August, 1777, on an alarm. He was the only one of the surname having a family in Mancheter in 1790, according to the federal census.
He married Lydia Aldridge.
Children:
Audrey, Innocence, Dolly, Darius, Lydia, Aaron (mentioned below), Mary, and two others.

(V) Aaron (2), son of Aaron (1) Mason, was born about 1775 in what was known as Phoenix, Connecticut. He married Chloe Baker.
Children:
Joseph, Chloe, Eliakin, John, Lydia, Maria, Thomas, Delia, Nathan (mentioned below).
He moved to Manchester, Vermont, and eventually left his Vermont home, and coming to New York in 1806, located in Mason street, Schuyler Falls, then a part of Plattsburgh, and engaged in farming. He lived there many years, and there his wife died in 1813. In 1832 he removed to Clayton, Jefferson county, N.Y. and died there in July, 1837.

(VI) Nathan, son of Aaron (2) Mason, was born Aug. 4, 1808, in Plattsburgh, where he lived until 1833, when he moved to Beekmantown, N.Y., and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He soon became one of the largest landowners of that place, operating the large farms that are now (1910) occupied and managed by his grandson Nathan Ross Mason.
Nathan Mason died at Beekmantown, September, 1882.
He married Saphrona Clark, daughter of Solomen and Patience (Weaver) Clark, April 7, 1831.
Children:
Adelia, Silas Clark (mentioned below), Leroy W., Sophronia E.

(VII) Silas C., son of Nathan Mason, was born at Plattsburgh, N.Y., March 5, 1835, and died there Feb. 2, 1889. He was educated there in the public schools and at Union College, from which he graduated with the degree of A.B. in the class of 1850. He then studied law at the Albany Law School, after which he returned to Plattsburgh to assume the management of his father's estates.
He was a Republican and active in public affairs.
He lived for several years at Beekmantown, and while there was elected supervisor for many successive terms.
On March 1, 1869, he married Julia, daughter of Samuel Anderson, of Beekmantown, and granddaughter of Captain Samuel Chatterton, U.S.A., and great-granddaughter of Wait Chatterton, an officer in the Continental army.
Eight children were born to them, four of whom are now (1910) living:
1. Nathan Ross, born Nov. 19, 1869, of Beekmantown, N.Y.; married May L. Parsons, Sept. 18, 1889; child, Earl Ross, born Nov. 17, 1893.
2. Frederick Clark, mentioned below.
3. Julia Chatterton, born April 21, 1881; married Arthur A. Webb, of Syracuse, June 21, 1906; child, Janet, born Aug. 30, 1907.
4. Edith, born May 22, 1884, now (1910) living in Plattsburgh.

(VIII) Dr. Frederick Clark Mason, son of Silas Mason, was born Aug. 7, 1877, at Plattsburgh. He attended the public schools and graduated from the Plattsburgh high school with the class of 1896. He studied two years at the University of Vermont, and then entered the medical department of the University of McGill, Montreal, Canada, September, 1898, from which he graduated in the class of 1902 with the degree of M.D. and C.M. He was then elected resident surgeon on the staff of the Montreal General Hospital, serving two years there, and at the Women's Hospital of the same place.
In 1904 he entered into practice with his uncle, Dr. Frederick A. Anderson, of Massena, New York. The partnership continued until Dec. 1, 1906, since which time Dr. Mason has engaged in the practice of his profession in Massena. In 1905 he was appointed district medical superintendent of the Grand Trunk railroad, which position he now (1910) holds.
He is a member of the St. Lawrence Medical Society, the Northern New York Medical Society, the New York State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.
He is a member of Plattsburgh Lodge, Free Masons; Massena Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; St. Lawrence Commandery, Knights Templar, Canton, N.Y.; and of Media Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine, Watertown, N.Y.
In politics he is a Republican.
On June 3, 1908, he married Julia Louise, daughter of Frederick J. and Julia (Orvis) Hyde.

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