Mason Family Papers: The Digital Edition

In September 1813, George Graham wrote a letter to his neighbor, Martin Cockburn, to inform him that Elizabeth had gone into labor while they were traveling through Loudoun County. Graham was pleased to announce that Elizabeth had delivered “a fine boy” they named Richard—Elizabeth’s fourth child with George Graham and the tenth child she had delivered in her lifetime. However, both mother and child seemed to be struggling: Richard was “exceedingly ill indeed,” while Elizabeth “is very weak and low,” though “her fevers have very much abated, and her spirits [are] very much better indeed.” A short time later, George Graham sent another letter to Cockburn with worse news: “Mrs. Graham recovers but slowly, her feet and ankles swell very much in the day, and her face at night.” As a result of Elizabeth’s poor health, Graham shared that “we lost our little boy … he was very bilious, and from the want of a fresh breast he became exceedingly emaciated.” In the months that followed, Elizabeth’s health only continued to decline, which would eventually lead to her death the following May.[1]

Like her forebears, Elizabeth Graham was deeply concerned about the inheritance that she left her children. In March 1813, Elizabeth sent her two counterpanes (i.e., bedspreads) to her eldest daughters “as remembrances of me,” along with explicit instructions “not give them as playthings to your squalling brats,” lest they get damaged. But beyond mere tokens of remembrance, Elizabeth Graham wanted to leave her children with a solid inheritance in the form of property and a good education. The best method for ensuring that each child received was through a last will and testament. As her health continued to decline, Elizabeth decided to write her will on April 17, 1814 while she was still “of sound mind and memory.[2]

Historian Mary Beth Norton argues that women of the early republic often provided an inheritance based on need and love instead of prioritizing male heirs or equally dividing property among their children.[3] This is particularly evident in the way that Elizabeth Graham bequeathed her estate. To start, Elizabeth excluded her eldest two sons—George Mason VI and William Mason—from her will, likely because they were the largest beneficiaries of George Mason V’s estate. Her eldest daughter, Elizabeth Hooe, only received the aforementioned “snow ball counterpane” as “a token of my love and affection.” Elizabeth’s second-eldest daughter, Ann Grymes, received only “the furniture now in my chamber.” Since both of these women had married advantageously during Elizabeth Graham’s lifetime, they did not require a sizeable inheritance from their mother.[4]

Elizabeth Graham’s will prioritized her youngest children, who were most in need of property. Sarah Barnes Mason—Elizabeth’s third daughter—was unmarried in 1814, prompting her mother to give her “one hundred Dollars annually so long as she may remain single and for one year after she may be married.” Elizabeth paired this annuity with a counterpane (presumably as a memento), some linens, and “the negroes Salt and Billy Lucas.” In other words, Elizabeth was not only providing for Sarah Barnes Mason until she could marry advantageously, but was also ensuring that Sarah could bring some moveable property into her marriage. The youngest of the Mason children, Richard Barnes Mason, received three enslaved people and a gold watch from his mother, which would supplement the Kentucky lands that he had received from his father’s will. Neither inheritance would make Richard B. Mason a very wealthy man, but Elizabeth’s bequeathment was far more than she had left to the other Mason sons.[5]

The largest inheritors of Elizabeth Graham’s estate were George Mason Graham and Mary Ann Jane Graham, Elizabeth’s two surviving children from her second marriage. These two children—aged six and three, respectively, at the time of their mother’s death—would need more financial assistance compared to the Mason children from Elizabeth’s first marriage, who were older and stood to inherit from their wealthy father’s estate. According to Elizabeth’s will, “the residue of my property” was placed in trust to George Graham, who was to use its value “to Educate my two dear little children, George Mason Graham and Mary Ann Jane Graham.”[6] Then, “at such time as he may think best and most proper,” George Graham was to divide the remainder of Elizabeth’s estate “between them … equally.” Elizabeth Graham also specifically allotted some enslaved people to her two children. George Mason Graham was originally the intended recipient of Salt and Billy Lucas, but a codicil to her will redirected the two enslaved people to his half-sister, Sarah. Meanwhile, Mary Ann Jane Graham inherited “Winney, Easter, and her children with their increase,” with the former potentially being the enslaved person Elizabeth had received from her mother in 1799.[7]

Elizabeth Mary Ann Barnes Graham died on May 28, 1814—a little over a month from when she wrote her last will and testament—and was interred in the Mason Family Cemetery beside George Mason V and her two deceased children, John Graham and Richard Graham. For her surviving children, Elizabeth’s death meant that they—like their parents—would receive an inheritance to position themselves among Virginia’s social and economic elite, thus repeating a process that Elizabeth herself had enjoyed in her lifetime.