Individual Details
Major John MASON
(Apr 1600 - 30 Jan 1672)
“Captain Mason was Tall and Portly, but nevertheless full of Martial Bravery and Vigor; that he soon became the equal dread of the more numerous Nations from Narragansset to Hudson’s River.” Captain Mason and Myles Standish “were both the Instrumental Saviors of this country in the most critical conjectures. . . Captain Mason was one of the first who went up from the Massachusetts about the year 1635 to lay the Foundation of the Connecticut Colony: He went from Dorchester, first settled at Windsor I, and thence marched forth to the Pequot War” (Mason, pp. 4-5). See above
This introduction to John Mason, linking him to Myles Standish as one of New England’s earliest military heroes, is from the introduction by the Reverend Mr. Thomas Prince to Major John Mason’s book, “A Brief History of the Pequot War.” Mason wrote his account of the war during his old age--about 1670--just a few years before his death.
From here and perhaps before “For besides his Office of Major General, the Colony in May 1660 chose him their Deputy Governour; continued him in the same Post by annual Re-elections, by virtue of their first Constitution to 1662 inclusively. The same Year King Charles II, comprehending the Colonies of Connecticut and New Haven in One Government by the name of Connecticut Colony, He in the Royal Charter, signed April 23 appointed Major Mason their first Deputy Governour till the second Thursday of October following: After which, the General Court being left to chuse their Officers, they continued to chuse him their Deputy Governour every Year to May 1670; when his Age and Bodily Infirmities advancing, he laid down his Office and retired from Publick Business” (9).[17]
In 1635 he settled in Windsor, Conn. When the Pequot Indians threatened to wipe out the new colonies on the Connecticut River, Mason led an expedition against them, with the aid of Mohegan Chief Uncas, and virtually destroyed the Pequot tribe. After this campaign-- called the Pequot War--Major Mason became a distinguished political leader in Connecticut.
The bloody Pequot War erupted following Pequot attacks on the English fort of Saybrook and the town of Wethersfield in 1637, and the killing of English colonists along the Connecticut River. An emergency meeting of the General Corte was held in Hartford on May 1, 1637 and the court made a unanimous resolution for “an offensive warre against the Pequoitt.” In his book, “A Brief History of the Pequot War written in his old age, Mason noted that Connecticut was still a wilderness when war was declared: “In 1637, only Hartford, Windsor and Weathersfield were settled, besides the Fortification built at Saybrook on the Mouth of the River,” manned by only 20 men (p. 5).
The court ordered a draft of 90 men from the three towns, a large number, considering that there were fewer than 800 English men, women and children living in Connecticut at that time.
Captain John Mason, an army man with a brilliant record of fighting for England in the Netherlands, was appointed commander of the troops. The colonists gained an ally in Uncas, sachem (chief) of the Mohegans, a separate band of the Pequot tribe. (Uncas is probably more famous as a character in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans than as a real-life person.)
Uncas and Mason became close allies during the war. As Prince put it : “Uncas the Great Sachim of the Mohegans, upon the first coming of the English, fell into an intimate Acquaintance with Capt. Mason” (7). Mason and Uncas remained closely allied in friendship and politics until their deaths.
Uncas played a leading role in the Mohegan effort to fight domination by the Pequot sachem Sassacus. The colonists, to be sure, encouraged such separatism, because a divided group of Indian nations naturally was to their advantage. At the same time, groups like the Mohegans seized upon the English presence as an opportunity to rid themselves of their own powerful Indian foes. Thus, Uncas sided with the English in the Pequot War. Indeed, he helped precipitate the conflict, realizing he would gain politically from its predictable outcome—an English victory.
Captain Mason gathered the combined English and Mohegan forces to set off on their expedition against the Pequot on May 20, 1637 down the Connecticut River to Fort Saybrook. There, Mason and his officers discussed how to proceed on their enterprise, “being altogether ignorant of the Country.” Because the Pequot, whose numbers “far exceeded” the English,” kept a continual Guard upon the River Night and Day” from their strongholds, Mason decided to load his little army into ships and sail through the Sound to Narragansett Bay, where he went ashore with his forces. They marched overland through Narragansett Indian territory to attack the Pequot at one of their two great forts on the Thames River, near present day Mystic. Approximately 600 Indians lived in each of the forts.
In a surprise pre-dawn attack on May 26, 1637, Mason’s small army hit the nearest Pequot stronghold. The wigwams were set on fire and within one hour, some 600 Pequot men, women, and children were killed, including warriors from the second fort, who had arrived while the fort was in flames. Only two of Mason’s men were killed in the massacre and 20 were wounded.
On July 28, 1637, the English, under Mason, pursued Sassacus and his band of Pequot from the other fort. During the chase across the country bordering Long Island Sound, a track of desolation was left behind, as wigwams and corn-fields were destroyed, and Pequot men, women and children were put to the sword. Sassacus’ warriors were caught in a swamp near present-day Fairfield, where they all surrendered to the English excepting the sachem and a few followers, who escaped to the Mohawks.
The captives were made slaves by the colonists or were sold in the West Indies. Sassacus and the few who escaped with him were put to death by Mohawk Indians. The few surviving Pequots scattered among other southern New England tribes. The war resulted in peace for New England colonists that lasted forty years. But an entire Indian nation was destroyed that day.
Uncas became a powerful sachem, renowned in war and peace. He remained a firm friend of John Mason, lived to old age and was buried among the graves of his kindred near the falls of the Yantic, in the City of Norwich.
“Soon after the War, Capt. Mason was by the Government of Connecticut, made the Major General of all their forces, and so continued to the day of his death: The Rev. Mr. Hooker of Hartford, being desired by the Government in their Name to deliver the Staff into his Hand . . .delivering to him the Principal Ensign of Martial Power, to Lead the Armies and Fight the Battles of the Lord and of his People” (Mason, 8). This statement, written by Major Mason in his old age, sums up the belief of the English Colonists, and certainly Mason himself, that God was on their side and that New England was theirs to take.
In 1663, the General Court granted to Major John Mason of Norwich a tract of 500 acres of land for services to the colony. Mason selected a tract northwest of Norwich, in what is now the Goshen section of Lebanon, at a place along the Yantic River that the Indians called Pomocook. It was on the Hockanum Path, the Indian path from Norwich to the Connecticut River.
The tract officially confirmed and surveyed in 1664, was the first land grant in what would later become the town of Lebanon. It contained extensive stands of white cedar, valuable for shingles, clapboards and cooperage stock, and was called Cedar Swamp. In 1666, the colony granted the Rev. James Fitch, the minister in Norwich and Mason’s son-in-law, a tract of l20 acres adjoining Major Mason’s land.
This introduction to John Mason, linking him to Myles Standish as one of New England’s earliest military heroes, is from the introduction by the Reverend Mr. Thomas Prince to Major John Mason’s book, “A Brief History of the Pequot War.” Mason wrote his account of the war during his old age--about 1670--just a few years before his death.
From here and perhaps before “For besides his Office of Major General, the Colony in May 1660 chose him their Deputy Governour; continued him in the same Post by annual Re-elections, by virtue of their first Constitution to 1662 inclusively. The same Year King Charles II, comprehending the Colonies of Connecticut and New Haven in One Government by the name of Connecticut Colony, He in the Royal Charter, signed April 23 appointed Major Mason their first Deputy Governour till the second Thursday of October following: After which, the General Court being left to chuse their Officers, they continued to chuse him their Deputy Governour every Year to May 1670; when his Age and Bodily Infirmities advancing, he laid down his Office and retired from Publick Business” (9).[17]
In 1635 he settled in Windsor, Conn. When the Pequot Indians threatened to wipe out the new colonies on the Connecticut River, Mason led an expedition against them, with the aid of Mohegan Chief Uncas, and virtually destroyed the Pequot tribe. After this campaign-- called the Pequot War--Major Mason became a distinguished political leader in Connecticut.
The bloody Pequot War erupted following Pequot attacks on the English fort of Saybrook and the town of Wethersfield in 1637, and the killing of English colonists along the Connecticut River. An emergency meeting of the General Corte was held in Hartford on May 1, 1637 and the court made a unanimous resolution for “an offensive warre against the Pequoitt.” In his book, “A Brief History of the Pequot War written in his old age, Mason noted that Connecticut was still a wilderness when war was declared: “In 1637, only Hartford, Windsor and Weathersfield were settled, besides the Fortification built at Saybrook on the Mouth of the River,” manned by only 20 men (p. 5).
The court ordered a draft of 90 men from the three towns, a large number, considering that there were fewer than 800 English men, women and children living in Connecticut at that time.
Captain John Mason, an army man with a brilliant record of fighting for England in the Netherlands, was appointed commander of the troops. The colonists gained an ally in Uncas, sachem (chief) of the Mohegans, a separate band of the Pequot tribe. (Uncas is probably more famous as a character in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans than as a real-life person.)
Uncas and Mason became close allies during the war. As Prince put it : “Uncas the Great Sachim of the Mohegans, upon the first coming of the English, fell into an intimate Acquaintance with Capt. Mason” (7). Mason and Uncas remained closely allied in friendship and politics until their deaths.
Uncas played a leading role in the Mohegan effort to fight domination by the Pequot sachem Sassacus. The colonists, to be sure, encouraged such separatism, because a divided group of Indian nations naturally was to their advantage. At the same time, groups like the Mohegans seized upon the English presence as an opportunity to rid themselves of their own powerful Indian foes. Thus, Uncas sided with the English in the Pequot War. Indeed, he helped precipitate the conflict, realizing he would gain politically from its predictable outcome—an English victory.
Captain Mason gathered the combined English and Mohegan forces to set off on their expedition against the Pequot on May 20, 1637 down the Connecticut River to Fort Saybrook. There, Mason and his officers discussed how to proceed on their enterprise, “being altogether ignorant of the Country.” Because the Pequot, whose numbers “far exceeded” the English,” kept a continual Guard upon the River Night and Day” from their strongholds, Mason decided to load his little army into ships and sail through the Sound to Narragansett Bay, where he went ashore with his forces. They marched overland through Narragansett Indian territory to attack the Pequot at one of their two great forts on the Thames River, near present day Mystic. Approximately 600 Indians lived in each of the forts.
In a surprise pre-dawn attack on May 26, 1637, Mason’s small army hit the nearest Pequot stronghold. The wigwams were set on fire and within one hour, some 600 Pequot men, women, and children were killed, including warriors from the second fort, who had arrived while the fort was in flames. Only two of Mason’s men were killed in the massacre and 20 were wounded.
On July 28, 1637, the English, under Mason, pursued Sassacus and his band of Pequot from the other fort. During the chase across the country bordering Long Island Sound, a track of desolation was left behind, as wigwams and corn-fields were destroyed, and Pequot men, women and children were put to the sword. Sassacus’ warriors were caught in a swamp near present-day Fairfield, where they all surrendered to the English excepting the sachem and a few followers, who escaped to the Mohawks.
The captives were made slaves by the colonists or were sold in the West Indies. Sassacus and the few who escaped with him were put to death by Mohawk Indians. The few surviving Pequots scattered among other southern New England tribes. The war resulted in peace for New England colonists that lasted forty years. But an entire Indian nation was destroyed that day.
Uncas became a powerful sachem, renowned in war and peace. He remained a firm friend of John Mason, lived to old age and was buried among the graves of his kindred near the falls of the Yantic, in the City of Norwich.
“Soon after the War, Capt. Mason was by the Government of Connecticut, made the Major General of all their forces, and so continued to the day of his death: The Rev. Mr. Hooker of Hartford, being desired by the Government in their Name to deliver the Staff into his Hand . . .delivering to him the Principal Ensign of Martial Power, to Lead the Armies and Fight the Battles of the Lord and of his People” (Mason, 8). This statement, written by Major Mason in his old age, sums up the belief of the English Colonists, and certainly Mason himself, that God was on their side and that New England was theirs to take.
In 1663, the General Court granted to Major John Mason of Norwich a tract of 500 acres of land for services to the colony. Mason selected a tract northwest of Norwich, in what is now the Goshen section of Lebanon, at a place along the Yantic River that the Indians called Pomocook. It was on the Hockanum Path, the Indian path from Norwich to the Connecticut River.
The tract officially confirmed and surveyed in 1664, was the first land grant in what would later become the town of Lebanon. It contained extensive stands of white cedar, valuable for shingles, clapboards and cooperage stock, and was called Cedar Swamp. In 1666, the colony granted the Rev. James Fitch, the minister in Norwich and Mason’s son-in-law, a tract of l20 acres adjoining Major Mason’s land.
Events
| Birth | Apr 1600 | Dorchster, Oxfordshire, England | |||
| Marriage | Jul 1639 | Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, British America - Anne Rosamond PECK | |||
| Death | 30 Jan 1672 | Norwich, New London, Connecticut, British America | |||
| Burial | 1672- | Norwich, New London, Connecticut, British America |  |
Families
| Spouse | Anne Rosamond PECK (1619 - 1672) |
| Child | Priscilla MASON (1641 - 1714) |
| Child | Elizabeth MASON (1654 - 1684) |
| Child | Lieutenant Daniel MASON (1652 - 1737) |
| Child | Isabell MASON (1656 - ) |
| Child | Anne MASON (1650 - 1709) |
| Child | Rachael MASON (1648 - 1679) |
| Child | Major Samuel MASON (1644 - 1705) |
| Father | Reverend Daniel MASON (1570 - 1672) |
| Mother | Dorothy HOBART ( - ) |
| Sibling | Edward MASON (1605 - 1641) |
| Sibling | John MASON (1600 - 1672) |
Endnotes
1. "Connecticut Deaths and Burials, 1772-1934," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F7DK-6NP : 3 December 2014), John Mason, 30 Jan 1672; citing Connecticut, reference ; FHL microfilm 3,166..