Mason Family Papers: The Digital Edition

Understanding Richard Chichester Mason begins with exploring the land and enslaved peoples he inherited from his parents and grandparents. Richard C. Mason was an heir to land and enslaved peoples passed down through a patriarchal structure which enabled Virginia’s landed gentry, such as George Mason IV, to ensure that their succeeding generations could maintain an elevated level of social, economic, and political power. The Fairfax Circuit Court Index enables researchers to track George Mason IV’s land and enslaved peoples to his grandson, Richard C. Mason.

            Richard Chichester Mason, born in 1793, was the seventh child of Thomson Mason and Sarah McCarty Chichester. Richard C. Mason was a grandson of George Mason IV, but was born in 1793, one year after his grandfather’s 1792 death.[1] Richard C. Mason married Lucy Bolling Randolph in 1816 and together they had fourteen children, eleven of which survived into adulthood, the youngest of which died in the 1920s. R. C. Mason himself lived until 1869 when he died on July 22 of that year.[2]

            Richard C. Mason’s mother, Sarah McCarty Mason, and father, Thomson Mason, benefited from inherited enslaved peoples. Thomson Mason, born in 1759, was the fourth surviving child of George Mason IV and Ann Eilbeck. George Mason IV wrote his will in 1773 and in it Thomson Mason inherited three enslaved peoples, “Sally, daughter of Lucy, Joe, son of Mrs. Eilbeck's slave Bess, [and] negro lad Cupid, formerly owned by grandfather William Eilbeck,” as well 3,300 acres of land.[3] Some of this inherited land, identified as lying between Dogue's Run and Little Huntington Creek, Thomson Mason eventually bequethed to his sons, Richard C. Mason and Thomson F. Mason, who built their respective estates, named Okeley and Huntley, on the property. 

            Sarah McCarty Chichester Mason, mother of Richard C. Mason, also grew her estate through enslaved property bequeathed to her by family members. Sarah received a 1/6 share of a group of twenty-four enslaved peoples in the will of her father, Richard Chichester, which ended up being five enslaved peoples.[4] She received another eighteen enslaved peoples and 800 acres of land according to her husband Thomson Mason’s will when he died in 1820.[5] Sarah also received the unnumbered “negroes, stock, and utensils” owned by her son, John Mason, which John bequethed to her before his 1821 death. Upon Sarah's death, Richard inherited a 1/3 share of her entire estate.[6]

To sum up his acquisitions, in 1820, when his father Thomson Mason died, Richard C. Mason inherited a ¼ share of his father's land and his enslaved peoples not given to Richard's mother. When Richard's mother Sarah McCarty Mason died six years later in 1826, Richard inherited a 1/3 share of his mother’s total estate. His mother's estate contained land and eighteen enslaved peoples from Richard's father, Richard's brother John Mason’s land and enslaved peoples, which John inherited from their father Thomson, and five enslaved peoples, Sam, Anna, Henry, Jenny, and Lavinia, which Sarah inherited from her father (Richard's maternal grandfather and namesake) Richard Chichester.