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Lemuel Mason
Colonel Lemuel Mason (c. 1628 – 1702) was an early Virginia planter, politician, justice of the peace, and militia colonel, who represented Lower Norfolk County in the House of Burgesses intermittently over three decades. Early and family life Mason was born around 1628 in then-vast Surry County to ancient planter Francis Mason and his second wife Alice. By the mid-1620s, his father was a planter in Elizabeth City County. There has long been disagreement as to whether his father Francis Mason or another man of the same name emigrated to the Virginia colony with his first wife Mary and daughter Anne in 1613 and settled in Surry County (south of Jamestown but north of Elizabeth City county). His mother had emigrated to the Virginia Colony in 1622, months after Native Americans had killed many settlers. This man had half brothers named Francis and James (the latter moving to Surry County by 1637 and representing it as a burgess in the 1654-1655 session), and sisters named A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established in 1619, became a bicameral institution. From 1642 to 1776, the House of Burgesses was an instrument of government alongside the royally-appointed colonial governor and the upper-house Council of State in the General House. When the Virginia colony declared its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain at the Fifth Virginia Convention in 1776 and became the independent Commonwealth of Virginia, the House of Burgesses became the House of Delegates, which continues to serve as the lower house of the General Assembly. Title ''Burgess'' originally referred to a freeman of a borough, a self-governing town or settlement in England. Early years The Colony of Virginia was founded by a joint-stock company, the Virginia Company, as a pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
