THE MASON TITLE AND ITS RELATIONS TO NEW HAMPSHIRE AND

MASSACHUSETTS

BY OTIS GRANT HAMMOND

The history of the Mason grant is founded upon confusion and obscurity. All the various grants to Mason and Gorges, or to Capt. John Mason alone, emanated from the "Council Established at Plymouth in the County of Devon for the Planting, Ruling, Ordering, and Governing of New England in America," which in common usage was called the Council of Plymouth, itself a confessed failure after only fifteen years of aimless, floundering existence. On the 3rd of November, 1620, the Council received from King James a grant of all the territory in America from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of northerly latitude, and extending from sea to sea.

The grants from the Council of Plymouth in which Capt. John Mason was interested are, briefly, as follows:

The grant of Mariana to John Mason Mar. 9, 16212, comprised the territory between the Naumkeag and Merrimack rivers, bounded on the west by a straight line connecting the sources of the two rivers.

The grant of Maine to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason Aug. 10, 1622, included the tract between the Merrimack and the Sagadahock rivers, and extending sixty miles inland.

The grant of New Hampshire to Capt. John Mason Nov. 7, 1629, comprised the territory between the Merrimack and the Piscataqua rivers, extending to

the head of each, and from the head of the Piscataqua, "northwestwards," and from the head of the Merrimack "forward up into ye land Westwards" until a distance of sixty miles from the sea had been reached on each course, and these limits to be connected by a line forming a westerly bound. These descriptions indicate the general courses of the two rivers as then understood, the Merrimack as flowing out of the west, and the Piscataqua from the northwest.

The grant of Laconia to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason Nov. 17, 1629, comprised an inland tract of land of very indefinite bounds, being described as all that land bordering on the river and lake of the Iroquois for a depth of ten miles to the south and east, westward half way to the next great lake, and north to the main river running from the Great Lakes into the River of Canada. It was intended that this grant should convey a tract of land lying in back of the Maine grant of 1622. The Lake of the Iroquois was probably Lake Champlain, but this grant was never even located.

The grant of Piscataqua Nov. 3, 1631, to Gorges and Mason, with their associates, John Cotton, Henry Gardner, George Griffith, Edwin Guy, Thomas Wannerton, Thomas Eyre, and Eleazer Eyre, conveyed the settlement already begun at Piscataqua and extending north to the Hilton Patent, with a considerable area to the south and west, very indefinitely and obscurely described.

Mason was elected a member of the Council of Plymouth in June, 1632, and in November following he became Vice-President, the Presidency being held by the Earl of Warwick. The work of the Council towards the settlement of New England was by this time clearly unsatisfactory. Their knowledge of the territory they held was very meager, and their grants were indefinite and unsuccessful. The members themselves became convinced of their futility

as a corporation organized for the development of the new world. Their enemies were numerous in both New and Old England, and they determined to divide their lands among themselves as far as possible, and to return their corporate powers to the King. In pursuance of this policy the Council, on the 18th of April, 1635, gave a lease of New Hampshire and Masonia to John Wollaston of London, goldsmith, a brother-in-law of Mason, for 3000 years, in accordance with an agreement with Mason. New Hampshire was described as extending from the Naumkeag to the Newichwannock rivers, and sixty miles inland, and Masonia was a 10,000 acre tract at the mouth of the Sagadahock.

Four days later, Apr. 22, 1635, the same lands were granted to Mason, these grants also being made in accordance with an agreement made February 3 of the same year. On the 11th of June following, Wollaston transferred his lease to Mason, whose title was thus doubled, and later in the same month the Council of Plymouth surrendered its charter to the King.

Capt. John Mason died late in 1635, and his will was dated November 26 of that year. He devised his province of New Hampshire to his grandson, John Tufton, on condition that he should take the name of Mason, and if he should die without issue the lands were to go to his brother, Robert Tufton, on the same condition. These were the sons of Mason's only child, Ann, who married Joseph Tufton.

John Tufton Mason did die without issue, and Robert Tufton became the heir, taking the name of Mason. Robert did not, however, come of lawful age until 1650. Capt. John Mason's widow had no interest in the province, and expressly notified Mason's agents in New Hampshire that she should take no care of the settlement, and that the tenants must manage affairs themselves.

Captain Mason was enthusiastic over his properties

in the new world, and spent time, energy, and money without limit in the effort to establish a permanent settlement that should be not only a source of wealth to himself, but a principality, hereditary in his family, which should thereby forever perpetuate his name. Before his death he had sent over about seventy settlers, besides tradesmen, with an ample supply of provisions, clothing, utensils, arms, and ammunition, and artillery for fortifications which were to be built. These colonists had entered upon a settlement at Piscataqua, built houses, cleared lands, and made large improvements. Cattle had also been sent over, a Danish breed, which is said to be still perceptible in some parts of New England. A settlement was established also on another plantation at Newichwannock, where two mills, the first in New England, and other buildings for habitation and defense had been erected. Altogether Captain Mason had expended on his province about £22,000 sterling, and in a letter to his agent, Ambrose Gibbons, in 1634 he stated that he had never received a penny in return. After his death, when it became known that the widow would not carry on the settlement, the agents and colonists obeyed her injunction to shift for themselves by looting the entire property. Francis Norton, who lived in the "Great House" at Piscataqua, and acted as agent in charge of the plantation of a thousand acres of cleared and improved land, drove a hundred head of Danish cattle to Boston, sold them for £25 a head, and settled at Charlestown with his profits. The other agents and servants followed his example, taking everything movable, even to the brass guns from the fort, and dividing the lands among themselves. Thomas Wannerton, another agent, seized large quantities of supplies and ammunition and sold them to the French at Port Royal in 1644.

All this occurred prior to 1650, and during the minority of Robert Tufton Mason. When he became legally qualified to care for his interests the state of