Mason Family Papers: The Digital Edition

John Adams wrote to George Mason V in 1789 and asked him to “give me leave to congratulate you on your marriage, the increase of your family, and your happy settlement on your plantation. I have known by repeated experience enough of the pleasure of returning from the life of a traveller in Europe, to the pleasures of domestic life, in a calm retreat in the country, to be very sensible of your situation’s being enviable.”[1]

Adams was quite right that Mason’s situation was enviable. George Mason V and Elizabeth’s twelve-year marriage yielded six children (three at the time of Adams’s letter), all of which survived infancy. The Masons’ “happy settlement” at Lexington plantation included a large manor house, exquisite landscaping, outbuildings, and enslaved laborers to work the gardens and in domestic service. The Mason holdings also included Gunston Hall and its surrounding lands (roughly 6,000 acres), fisheries along the Potomac River, 600 acres in Culpeper County, Virginia, thousands of acres of frontier lands in Kentucky, dozens of enslaved field hands scattered across their Virginia lands, and a wide assortment of personal property like furniture and clothing.

The Masons attained their wealth and stature through one primary method: inheritance. To be sure, George and Elizabeth received the bulk of their inheritances after the death of their parents. However, they also received sizable distributions during their parents’ lifetimes. In a 1783 letter to his son, George Mason IV made this evident: “I am now pretty far advanced in Life, and all my views are center'd in the Happiness & well-fare of my children; you will therefore find from me every Indulgence which you have a right to expect from an affectionate Parent.”[2] This prompted George Mason IV to deed the Lexington estate to George Mason V in 1776, coupled with assisting in the construction of his son’s mansion at Lexington. After George Mason IV’s death in 1792, George Mason V inherited his father’s lands at Gunston Hall and in Kentucky.[3]

Elizabeth Mason similarly improved her husband and children’s fortunes through inheritance. Like many women in the early republic, Elizabeth’s inheritance from her parents was mostly in the form of moveable property, to include clothing, furniture, enslaved people, and money.[4] In accordance with her father’s will—which dictated that his property “be disposed of among my Children in whatever manner [Sarah Hooe] thinks proper”—Elizabeth received a large inheritance from her mother in the 1780s. In addition to the aforementioned lands in Culpeper County, Elizabeth became the owner of fifteen enslaved people: “Will, George, Bettey, Sarah, Harry, Sally, Anthony, Phill, Mary (and her two sons) Will and James, Philis (and her three children) George, Matilda, & Jeremy.” Sarah Hooe also included the provision that Elizabeth would be entitled to “the increase of all such femles [sic] given by their father or myself (those born in their possession),” which was a common clause for deeds pertaining to enslaved women.[5] In 1799—three years after the death of George Mason V—Sarah Hooe gave another enslaved person to Elizabeth, presumably to help in the rearing of Elizabeth’s six children at Lexington. According to the deed, Elizabeth received “one negroe black girl (daughter to Winny) and aged about eight years, named Molly [and] her future increase” on account of Sarah Hooe’s “love I bear to my daughter.” Winny lived in Culpeper County, Virginia, which meant that Elizabeth’s inheritance separated an enslaved girl from her mother.[6]

It is worth noting that inheritance cut two ways. On one hand, for George and Elizabeth Mason, inheritance enriched their family, solidified their social standing, and provided the basis for the fortune that they would pass down to their children. Specifically for Elizabeth Mason, it also offered a certain degree of independence: she could control her inherited property without considerable interference from her husband, then rely on those inherited assets to support her in widowhood.[7] On the other hand, for the people enslaved by the Masons and Hooes, inheritance separated families, undermined slave communities, and passed enslavement onto the next generation of Black people. In the case of Winny and her eight-year-old daughter, Molly, inheritance meant the separation of an enslaved mother from her child. In other words, Elizabeth Mason's economic gains came at the expense of enslaved people like Winny and Molly.[8]