Chopawamsic was an 18th-century

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

Chopawamsic Creek Chopawamsic Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the Potomac River in Prince William and Stafford counties, Virginia. Chopawamsic Cree ...

in Stafford County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Chopawamsic was a seat of the Mason family, which enslaved people there.

History

After the death of

George Mason I George Mason I (5 June 1629 – 1686) was the American progenitor of the prominent American landholding and political Mason family. Mason was the great-grandfather of George Mason, George Mason IV, a Founding Fathers of the United States, Found ...

, his eldest son George Mason II sold his father's Accokeek plantation and moved to a property along

that he called Chopawamsic, which means “Isolated Lodge” in Algonquian. Chopawamsic consisted of more than .

George Mason II George Mason II (1660–1716) was an early American planter and officeholder who, although his father's only child, had many children and thus can be said to have established the Mason family as one of the First Families of Virginia. His grandson ...

built his manor along Chopawamsic Creek using blocks of local

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

. Mason planted an

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and raised

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

, relying on the forced labor of enslaved people. Mason's 1715 will listed 21 named slaves. Like his father,

George Mason III George Mason III (1690March 5, 1735) was an American planter, military officer, legislator and government official. Although he repeatedly won election to represent Stafford County in the then-one-house Virginia General Assembly, he may today be ...

amassed vast land holdings in Stafford, Fauquier,

Prince William William, Prince of Wales, (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in London, William was educat ...

, and Fairfax counties. Most of his land holdings were leased out as small farms with the rent paid in tobacco. His other sources of income included a fishing business and a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

service across

Occoquan River The Occoquan River is a tributary of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia, where it serves as part of the boundary between Fairfax and Prince William counties. The river is a scenic area, and several local high schools and colleges use the r ...

. A few years after his marriage to Ann Thomson in 1721, Mason moved his family to

Charles County Charles County is a county in Southern Maryland. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata, Maryland, La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Charle ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Chopawamsic was used as an occasional residence until Mason's death in 1735 when his widow and children, including

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

George Mason IV 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 ...

, returned to live there. Ann Thomson Mason chose Chopawamsic as her dower after her husband's death and managed Mason family interests from the estate for the remainder of her life. George Mason IV spent his early adolescence and began his early education at Chopawamsic and resided there until the age of 24 when he moved to present-day Fairfax County.

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 ...

, son of

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 wou ...

, who was first Attorney of the Bar in

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

, was born at Chopawamsic in 1760. Thomson Mason and his family resided at Chopawamsic where most of his children were born and later also at

Raspberry Plain Raspberry Plain is a historic property and former plantations in the American South, plantation in Loudoun County, Virginia, Loudoun County, Virginia, near Leesburg, Virginia, Leesburg. Raspberry Plain became one of the principal Mason family est ...

Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun C ...

. The large sandstone manor at Chopawamsic did not survive 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 th ...

. In 1942, much of the area along Chopawamsic Creek that once belonged to the Chopawamsic estate was taken over by the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

to create

Marine Corps Base Quantico Marine Corps Base Quantico (commonly abbreviated MCB Quantico) is a United States Marine Corps installation located near Triangle, Virginia, covering nearly of southern Prince William County, Virginia, northern Stafford County, and southeaster ...

Birthplace

The following people were born at Chopawamsic: *

(14 August 1733–26 February 1785), son of George Mason III and brother of

(29 December 1760–9 May 1803), son of

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 ...

(15 March 1765–10 December 1824), son of

*Ann Thomson Mason Chichester (26 February 1769–29 August 1817), daughter of

*Westwood Thomson Mason (20 December 1780–1826), daughter of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chopawamsic (Plantation) Mason family residences Houses in Stafford County, Virginia Plantations in Virginia

Archaeological sites in Virginia This is a listing of sites of archaeological interest in the state of Virginia, in the United States. {{Commons cat, Archaeological sites in Virginia Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlant ...

Houses completed in the 18th century Colonial architecture in Virginia George Mason Homes of United States Founding Fathers