Richard Chichester Mason (7 May 1793 – 22 July 1869) was an American planter,

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and politician in Fairfax County, Virginia, which he twice represented in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-number ...

. Mason also practiced medicine in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

(part of the District of Columbia until 1847) and spent the American Civil War in Richmond working for the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (1915), vol. 4 p. 24 available at https://archive.org/details/encyclopediavir07unkngoog

Early life and education

Richard Chichester Mason may have been born at Newington plantation in Fairfax County to the former Sarah McCarty Chichester (1770-1826) on May 7, 1793. Descended from the

First Families of Virginia First Families of Virginia (FFV) were those families in Colonial Virginia who were socially prominent and wealthy, but not necessarily the earliest settlers. They descended from English colonists who primarily settled at Jamestown, Williamsbur ...

, his father was planter

Thomson Mason Thomson Mason (14 August 173326 February 1785) was an American lawyer, planter and jurist. A younger brother of George Mason IV, United States patriot, statesman, and delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention, Thomson Mason wo ...

(1759–1820), who with his father's financial assistance constructed a house known as Hollin Hall on his Fairfax County property shortly after this marriage. The marriage produced four sons and four daughters who survived to adulthood (an elder brother George William Mason was born at Hollin Hall in 1791 and would move to Kentucky where he died in 1855). Thomson Mason would serve in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly during his boy's childhood. The eldest brother, Thomson Francis Mason (1785-1838 would become a judge in Washington DC), and the youngest brother, John Mason (1797-1820) died around the same time as their father. Their paternal grandfather,

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including ...

, was a prominent patriot in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, having served in the

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 establishe ...

and later the

and drafted the

Virginia Declaration of Rights The Virginia Declaration of Rights was drafted in 1776 to proclaim the inherent rights of men, including the right to reform or abolish "inadequate" government. It influenced a number of later documents, including the United States Declaratio ...

. George Mason also served as one of Virginia's representatives to the federal Constitutional Convention in 1783, where he became known in part for his denunciations of slavery and the slave trade, and later became one of the most noted anti-Federalists at the Virginia Ratification Convention of 1788, though he died months before this boy's birth. His maternal grandfather, Richard Chichester (1736-1796), for whom the boy was named, was also a planter and local government official. R.C. Mason received a private education appropriate to his class, then traveled to Philadelphia to attend the

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...

. He graduated as a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

in 1816. Mason's doctoral

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

was on menstruation.

Career

Shortly before this boy's birth, his father Thomson Mason inherited a portion of the

Gunston Hall Gunston Hall is an 18th-century Georgian mansion near the Potomac River in Mason Neck, Virginia, United States. Built between 1755 and 1759 as the main residence and headquarters of a plantation, the house was the home of the United State ...

estate, which his father George Mason and previous generations of the family had farmed using enslaved labor. George Mason had died on October 7, 1792, after training his three eldest sons including Thomson Mason (who shared the name with his lawyer uncle, who died before his brother) to operate using enslaved labor even before they reached reaching legal age to hold property. However, in his final years, the elder Mason trained his two youngest sons, John Mason and Thomas Mason to become merchants, but they too became wealthy planters after the Fairfax County court admitted a 1775 will into probate when this man was a boy. Around 1817, as R.C. Mason reached legal age, Thomson Mason divided his Fairfax County property into two plantations: Dogue Run farm for this man and Hunting Creek farm for his brother

Thomson Francis Mason Thomson Francis Mason (1785 – 21 December 1838) was an American lawyer, planter and politician who served as the mayor of Alexandria (then in the District of Columbia, but now Virginia) between 1827 and 1830, and as a justice of the peace for ...

(1785–1838). Upon returning to Virginia, Dr. Robert C. Mason advertised his new medical practice in Alexandria, with his office on King Street and home on St. Asaph Streets (in what is now known as

Old Town Alexandria Old Town Alexandria is one of the original settlements of the city of Alexandria, Virginia and is located just minutes from Washington, D.C. Old Town is situated in the eastern and southeastern area of Alexandria along the Potomac River. Old ...

). By 1819, R.C. Mason and his family also owned property in the southern section of Alexandria known as Round Hill. During the 1820s, Fairfax County voters twice elected (but failed to re-elect) Dr. R.C. Mason as one of their delegates in the

(a part-time position). He served one term alongside his distant lawyer cousin

Robert Townshend Thompson Robert Townshend Thompson (1792–August 9, 1887) was a Virginia lawyer, planter and politician in Fairfax County, Virginia, which he represented in the Virginia House of Delegates for nearly a decade (1816–1825). Thompson married Leah W. Kitc ...

and one term alongside Nathaniel Tyler. While practicing medicine in Alexandria (before retiring at age 45), Mason also served as a justice of the peace in Fairfax County. His brother Thomson F. Mason served on the Alexandria City council in the 1820s and 1830s, and as the town's mayor 1828-1830. In 1824, Hollin Hall burned down and was not immediately rebuilt. During the 1830s R.C. Mason began building a new manor house on his Dogue Run plantation, where he began living by 1834 and called Okeley Manor. When R.C. Mason retired from his Alexandria medical practice and lived at Okeley Manor, which was in Fairfax County even before Alexandria's retrocession to Virginia in 1847, he operated his plantation using enslaved labor. In the 1850 Federal Census, Mason characterized himself as a "farmer", and lived with wife and their four youngest children. In that year, he owned 17 slaves in Fairfax County, ranging from a 48 year old Black man and his 45 year old mulatto wife to 7 year old black and 6 year old mulatto boys and 6 and 4 year old mulatto girls. A decade later, the census district was renamed for the Orange and Alexandria Railroad which ran through it, and R.C. Mason owned ten slaves, the oldest a 31 year old woman. Shortly after Virginia voted to secede from the Union at the beginning of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, Union troops occupied Alexandria and commandeered Mason's house because of its proximity to the strategically important railroad which connected the town to the state capitol at Richmond. Dr. Mason moved his family to Richmond, but alternate stories exist as to his wartime activities. His pardon application in 1865 said he was a writer in General Cooper's office. However a record exists of his 1861 enlistment in the

, and on October 1, 1861, Sergeant R.C. Mason was assigned as a medic at Culpeper Court House. Moreover, his sons Beverly Randolph Mason and Thomas Pinckney Mason served as Confederate officers (army and naval respectively) during the conflict. Following the conflict, R.C. Mason returned home at age 72 to find the mansion at Okeley had been used during the war as a hospital (particularly for infectious smallpox patients), then burned to the ground. A negro and an Irishman seemed to possess the property. On September 20, 1865, Mason having signed the required oath of loyalty to the United States, President Andrew Johnson pardoned Mason for his activities on behalf of the confederacy.U.S. Pardons under Amnesty Proclamations, 1865-1869 p. 82 of 732

Death and legacy

R.C. Mason died on 22 July 1869 at "Rutledge" in Fauquier County, Virginia at age 76. By 1880, Mason's son Beverley Mason had recovered the Dogue Run property and lived at a house he built on the hill. The property is now a Fairfax County park and nature preserve known as

Huntley Meadows Park Huntley Meadows Park, the largest park operated by the Fairfax County Park Authority (), is located in the Hybla Valley area of Fairfax County, Virginia, south of the city of Alexandria. The park features a visitor center, a beaver-created wet ...

Marriage, children and descendants

Mason married Lucy Bolling Randolph, also of the First Famillies of Virginia through her father Colonel Robert Randolph, on 14 May 1816 at "Eastern View" plantation in

Fauquier County Fauquier is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 72,972. The county seat is Warrenton. Fauquier County is in Northern Virginia and is a part of the Washington metropolitan area. History In 160 ...

, Virginia. Lucy would bear sixteen children including: *Robert Thomson Mason (12 May 1818–1890) *William Fitzhugh Mason (4 April 1821–12 July 1822) *Randolph Fitzhugh Mason (1 March 1823–9 August 1862) *Lucius Meade Mason (24 May 1824–6 January 1845) *Eliza Carter Mason (24 May 1824–12 December 1832) *Baynton Turner Mason (8 January 1826–27 June 1857) *Richard Randolph Mason (19 April 1827–18 March 1886) *Lucy Bolling Mason (8 September 1831–15 December 1832) *Eliza Lucy Mason (13 December 1832–8 July 1862) *

Beverley Randolph Mason Beverley Randolph Mason (1 September 1834–22 April 1910) was an American military officer and educator who was the founder and principal of the Gunston Hall School for young women in Washington, D.C. Mason was a great-grandson of George Mas ...

(1 September 1834–22 April 1910) *Eva Mary Anna Mason Heth (17 January 1836–19 November 1915) * John Stevens Mason (18 August 1839–3 April 1918) *Landon Randolph Mason (31 December 1841–21 June 1923) * William Pinckney Mason (10 January 1843–16 December 1923) Richard Chichester Mason was a grandson of

(1725–1792); nephew of George Mason V (1753–1796); grandnephew of

(1733–1785); son of

(1759–1820) and Sarah McCarty Chichester Mason; first cousin once removed of

Stevens Thomson Mason Stevens Thomson Mason (October 27, 1811 – January 4, 1843) was an American politician who served as the first governor of Michigan from 1835 to 1840. Coming to political prominence at an early age, Mason was appointed his territory's ...

(1760–1803) and

John Thomson Mason John Thomson Mason (15 March 1765 – 10 December 1824) was an American lawyer and Attorney General of Maryland in 1806. Early life Mason was born on 15 March 1765 at Chopawamsic in Stafford County, Virginia. He was the third child and you ...

(1765–1824); second cousin of

Armistead Thomson Mason Armistead Thomson Mason (August 4, 1787February 6, 1819), the son of Stevens Thomson Mason, was a U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1816 to 1817. Mason was also the second-youngest person to ever serve in the US Senate, at the age of 28 and 5 month ...

(1787–1819),

(1787–1850), and John Thomson Mason, Jr. (1815–1873); first cousin of George Mason VI (1786–1834),

Richard Barnes Mason Richard Barnes Mason (January 16, 1797July 25, 1850) was an American military officer who was a career officer in the United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is on ...

(1797–1850), and

James Murray Mason James Murray Mason (November 3, 1798April 28, 1871) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as senator from Virginia, having previously represented Frederick County, Virginia, in the Virginia House of Delegates. A grandson of George Ma ...

(1798–1871); second cousin once removed of

(1811–1843); and first cousin thrice removed of Charles O'Conor Goolrick.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Richard Chichester 1793 births 1869 deaths American Episcopalians American people of English descent American planters American slave owners Businesspeople from Virginia Confederate States Army officers Mason family People from Fairfax County, Virginia People of Virginia in the American Civil War Physicians from Virginia Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Virginia Democratic-Republicans Virginia Democrats Randolph family of Virginia