Farewell to October

By Frank N. Barker

Assistant Education Coordinator

“We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.”

George Mason, 1775

October 7, 1792—George Mason died at Gunston Hall. He was buried in the family burial ground, a few hundred yards from the mansion. Col. Mason lies next to his first wife, Ann Eilbeck Mason. 

Why were George Mason and other family members buried at home and not in a church cemetery?

While towns such as Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Alexandria had churchyard cemeteries, it was impractical for most people to be buried there unless they lived (and died) in town, close to the church. In the 18^th century South and Mid-Atlantic region, the rise of the plantation system spread out the population geographically. Towns were far apart, large church parishes were often centered around a single church, and roads were often bad. As plantations became a self-sufficient way of life, they also became a self-sufficient way of death.

Family members who died were prepared for burial by other family members. The coffin was made at the plantation. The corpse would lie in state in the house until the funeral. Burials were done quickly as bodies were not embalmed.

Family cemeteries were often enclosed by a fence or wall; sometimes slaves were buried in the family cemetery, but outside the wall or fence. According to custom, people were usually buried lined up from east to west. Graves were often marked with both headstones and footstones; some with large stone tablets or statues. Engraved gravestones could be homemade, purchased locally, or, sometimes, purchased in England. Often elaborate epitaphs and poems were carved into the stones.

Did George Mason and his familiy celebrate Halloween?

Possibly. European immigrants to America brought a variety of Halloween traditions with them. In the New England colonies, their Puritan backgrounds limited such pagan celebrations, but in the southern colonies, customs of different European ethnic groups and, even those of American Indians, blended into Halloween and harvest celebrations.

Public events could include dances, story-telling where neighbors would share stories of the dead, fortune-telling, ghost stories and mischief-making. Whether such customs occurred with the Mason family of devout Anglicans living at Gunston Hall is unknown.

More widespread celebrations of Halloween wouldn't be common until the middle of the 19th century and its enormous influx of European immigrants.

In the year that George Mason died 

• The U.S. postal service was created; postage was 6 cents to 12 cents, depending on distance.
• Oranges were introduced to Hawaii.

·         Congress established the Philadelphia Mint.

• The United States authorized $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle and $2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins and silver dollars, quarters, dimes and half-dimes.
• George Washington used a presidential veto for the first time, vetoing a bill designed to apportion representatives among the several states.
• France declared war on Austria.
• The U.S. established a military draft.
• The Columbia River was discovered and named by American explorer Capt. Robert Gray.
• A toilet that flushed itself at regular intervals was patented.
• 24 merchants formed the New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street.
• Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state in the union.
• Columbus Day was first celebrated on the 300^th anniversary of the discovery of America.
• President Washington laid the cornerstone of the Executive Mansion (White House).
• George Washington was re-elected president.
• In Vienna, 22-year old Ludwig Von Beethoven received his first lesson in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn.

 Important October events in George Mason’s lifetime

• Oct. 4, 1787—A broadside with George Mason's “Objections” to the proposed U.S. Constitution was printed in Philadelphia.
• Oct. 7, 1765—Nine American colonies sent a total of 28 delegates to New York City for the Stamp Act Congress. The delegates adopted the “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.”
• Oct. 11, 1759—Mason Locke Weems was born. This future parson at Pohick Church is better known as the biographer who created the story about George Washington cutting down his father's cherry tree.
• Oct 17, 1781—General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown, essentially ending hostilities of the American Revolution.
• Oct. 19, 1782—George Mason quit his seat in the House of Delegates, “from a Conviction that I was no longer able to do any essential Service. Some of the public Measures have been so contrary to my Notions of Policy and of Justice, that I wished to be no further concern'd with, or answerable for them; and to spend the Remnant of my Life in Quiet & Retirement.”
• Oct. 24, 1788—American poet Sarah Josepha Hale was born. Her most famous work? “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
• Oct. 25, 1760—George III ascended to the British throne after the death of King George II, his grandfather.
• Oct. 27, 1757—William Mason, George and Ann Mason’s fourth child is born. Their third child, also named William, had died that August. 
• Oct. 25, 1787—The first of the Federalist Papers were published in the New York Independent. The series of 85 essays, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, were published under the pen name “Publius.”

Gunston Hall Empty Mansion Photo Contest

By Lacey Villiva
Education Manager

As our readers may be aware, we are currently in the process of replacing our 80+ year old slate roof with a more period appropriate cedar roof.  During this process all of the furnishings had to be removed for their protection, and as a result, we are currently allowing photography in the Mansion.  From August through September, we ran a photo contest, and received 118 submissions from 21 photographers.  It is our great pleasure to announce the winners of our Empty Mansion Photo Contest.

In third place, is a photo by Hannah Wheeler, titled "Past Perspective #5.

In second place, is a photo by Lillis Werder, titled "Golden Hour at Gunston Hall."

And in first place, is a photo by Lael Voeller, titled "Mansion After a Rainstorm."  Lael is a local resident, and recieved her prize here at Gunston early this week.


 
If you haven't already seen the rest of the photo collection, please check the pictures out on our website or Facebook page.

The “Other” Amendments in the Bill of Rights

By Frank N. Barker
Assistant Education Coordinator

On this day, September 25, in 1787, a joint resolution of the 1st Congress approved 12 amendments to the recently ratified Constitution of the United States. These would become known as the Bill of Rights and many of the ideas and wording were based on George Mason’s 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Did you read that paragraph carefully? Did you notice that Congress approved 12 amendments? Do you remember all 12 or were you pretty sure that there are only 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights?

Image Courtesy of the National Constitution Center

Congress indeed sent 12 amendments out to the states for ratification. Articles 3 through 12 were ratified and on December 15, 1791, became Articles 1 through 10, the Bill of Rights. What about those other two amendments?

The original Article 1 states “After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.”

This article is still pending. Despite the eventual approval by 12 states by 1792, it was still two states short of ratification. No additional states have voted for it since then. Today, with 50 states, this amendment will need ratification by 27 more states to become an amendment. Congress set no time limit to proposed amendments, so though it is not ratified, it still could be.

Article 2 was submitted by Congress to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789. It was approved and became part of the United States Constitution on May 7, 1992. If you are keeping score, that took 202 years, 7 months and 12 days, longer than any other Constitutional amendment. Instead of becoming the Second Amendment, it became the 27th.

This 27th Amendment prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until the start of the next set of terms of office for Representatives.

It is the most recent amendment to the United States Constitution. It just took a while to get there.

Sources
Lloyd, Gordon. "The Bill of Rights | Teaching American History." Teaching American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://teachingamericanhistory.org/bor/>.
“The 27th Amendment | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives.” The 27th Amendment. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/35665>.

George's Aunt Simpha

By Carole Thomas
Gunston Hall Historic Interpreter Society
Pohick Docent Guild

Information about a woman in the 18th century can be scarce even if she was a member of a family which had a significant impact on the transformation of Virginia from a colony of the mother country, England, to a state in an independent nation. Simpha Rosa Ann Field Mason Dinwiddie Bronaugh was the paternal aunt of George Mason IV. The information available about her provides basic knowledge about her family background, whom she married, how many children she had, but little about her skills and accomplishments.

Simpha was born into the gentry in 1703 in Stafford County, Virginia, to George Mason II (1660-1716) and his wife, Mary Fowke. Simpha’s maternal grandfather, Colonel Gerard Fowke, was an ex-Royalist officer who immigrated to Virginia in 1651 and settled in Westmoreland County. He purchased land in Virginia, became a Burgess in 1663, and moved to Maryland in 1664, where he purchased additional large grants of land. Colonel Fowke died in 1669. Her oldest brother George would become the father of George Mason of Gunston Hall.

Simpha’s paternal grandfather was George Mason I (1629-1686), who was born in Pershore in Worcestershire, England and immigrated to Virginia about 1651. In 1659, he was Sheriff of Stafford County, a member of the House of Burgesses in 1676, and a Colonel of the Militia. He died in 1686.

As a member of the landed gentry, Simpha likely would have been an educated woman for the period in which she lived. During the 18th century, girls were usually educated at home by their governesses or tutoresses. Simpha would also have been schooled in the skills of housewifery by her mother. At a later period in her life, it would appear that Simpha possessed and demonstrated the character traits necessary to successfully take charge of the responsibilities she accepted as a result of life’s challenges. Simpha was widowed twice, both times inheriting the lands, stocks, slaves, servants and livestock for which her husbands’ had been responsible. With each husband, she had children for whose care and education she was also responsible. Perhaps she had family members or friends guiding her in performing these duties, but we do not have any records of such additional involvement.

In 1716, Simpha married John Dinwiddie, the younger brother of Robert Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia from 1751-1758. John was a member of a Scottish family that had established a successful mercantile business in the Virginia tobacco trade. John handled the family’s interests on the Rappahannock River. In 1724 he returned to Scotland, became ill and died. In his will, John specified that Simpha must bring their daughters to Scotland and sell the Virginia estates for the girls’ support. Further, if Simpha was unwilling to leave Virginia, she could remain but was still required to send the girls to his relatives. Simpha refused to leave the land where she was born and would not send her daughters away.

For an 18th century woman to willfully defy the stipulations of her husband’s will as Simpha did required determination and courage. She must have considered what repercussions she and her daughters might have experienced because of her decision to challenge the law. Fortunately for Simpha and the girls, news of a second will reached Virginia in December of 1726. It would appear that this will did not have the stipulation of returning the girls to family in Scotland. However, when the two girls were old enough they went to England for their education, after which they returned to Virginia.

In December 1727, Simpha married Jeremiah Bronaugh, Jr. of King George County, Virginia, and kept the children from her first marriage with her. Jeremiah was a Justice of the Fairfax County Court (1741-1749) and a vestryman of Pohick Church, Truro Parish, Lorton, Virginia. He became a close friend of George Mason III. In 1731, George Mason III leased the plantation known as Newtown to his sister Simpha and her husband Jeremiah. Newtown had been the home of Mason’s father, George Mason II, and was located to the northwest of the current Gunston Hall mansion. Jeremiah and Simpha had five children.

From what we do know of gentry women’s duties during the 18th century, we can postulate that Simpha’s duties and skills were similar. She would have been responsible for the management of the household and involved in plantation activities. Even though indentured servants and slaves would have done the actual work, her responsibility was to see that everything was performed in a manner that would provide suitable hospitality to guests as well as family members. Simpha would have acted as the hostess when visitors came to the plantation, therefore, she needed to have the social skills necessary to make them feel comfortable. She would have arranged for the provision of clothing for the household staff, the slaves working on the plantation and her family members. Some clothing was imported from Europe, and some was made on the plantation. She would have overseen the spinning, weaving and dyeing of cloth. The provision and preparation of food for family members and guests was also supervised by the lady of the house. After the deaths of John and Jeremiah, Simpha would have been in frequent communication with the overseers of the various plantations and farms that were left to her and her children. It appears that her skills would have been those of a manager, diplomat, administrator, supervisor and procurer of supplies.

Jeremiah died in 1749; Simpha later moved into Gunston Hall where she died on November 22, 1761 at the age of 58. Although Jeremiah’s tombstone is at the Pohick Church cemetery, it is probable that both of them are buried at the Family Burying Place at Newtown.

Sources
Bronaugh 1670s – 1970s, A Tricentennial Genealogy with Biographical Notes (Revised March, 1982), Researched and Compiled by Robert Brett Bronaugh
Copeland, Pamela C. and MacMaster, Richard K., The Five George Masons, Patriots and Planters of Virginia and Maryland, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1975.
Conversation with Lacey Villiva, Education Manager, Gunston Hall, July 10, 2014.
Dave Shonyo, Staff Archaeologist, “Lost Mason Burying Ground Has Been Found,” Gunston Hall Blog, June 27, 2013.
Minutes of the Vestry, Truro Parish, Virginia, 1732-1785, Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore, MD, 1995.

William Grayson, One of Virginia’s First Senators

By Frank N. Barker
Assistant Education Coordinator

The August 29, 2014, edition of the Washington Post contained an article about the restoration of the tomb of William Grayson, who was born and was buried in 1790 at Belle Air plantation, in what is now Woodbridge, VA.

The article states that Grayson was the only U.S. Senator from Prince William County and died after only one year in office. What the article doesn’t mention is that George Mason of Gunston Hall was appointed to succeed him.

Senator William Grayson was described 

as one of the most handsome of the 

founding fathers. He was six feet tall 

and weighed 250 pounds. Photo from

 Biographical Directory of the United 

States Congress.

William Grayson was born in 1736 to Benjamin Grayson, an immigrant from Dumfries, Scotland, and Susannah Monroe, first cousin twice removed to James Monroe. Before he was 30, Grayson had become a very successful lawyer in Dumfries, Virginia. Part of his social circle and legal clients included neighbors from Fairfax County, George Washington and George Mason. According to one writer, he was “a member of the old Pohick Church as well as their chosen attorney.”

During the American Revolution, Grayson served as an aide-de-camp to his neighbor and former legal client George Washington. As a colonel in the Continental Army, Grayson later commanded an infantry regiment at the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. After his regiment was incorporated into another, Col. Grayson became a member of the Congressional Board of War

After the war, Grayson returned to his law practice and served Virginia in the House of Delegates from 1784 to 1785, then was a member of the Confederation Congress from 1785 to 1787. He was elected as a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention of June 1788 during which, along with Patrick Henry and George Mason, he opposed the adoption of the new Constitution. He felt the Constitution favored the northern states and that a bill of rights was needed.

Despite the objections of these Anti-Federalists, the Constitution was ratified. In November, the Virginia Legislature elected the first U.S. Senators from the Old Dominion. William Grayson, Richard Henry Lee, and James Madison were the three candidates. Through the political dealings of Patrick Henry, including warning the House of Delegates that Madison was untrustworthy and would be certain to betray the Anti-Federalists should he be elected, Grayson and Lee were selected.

Grayson and Lee thus became Virginia’s first Senators. They traveled to the capital in New York City where they were the only Anti-Federalists serving in the Senate. Grayson served throughout the first session until adjournment in September 1789. Before he could return for the next session in the spring of 1790, he died, probably from complications of the gout which had afflicted him for years. He was buried at the plantation where he was born, which had been inherited by his older brother, Rev. Spence Grayson.

Upon Sen. Grayson’s death, Governor Beverly Randolph offered the Senate seat to George Mason. In his letter of March 25, 1790, to Col. Mason, Randolph wrote: “The very important subjects now before congress so interesting to America in general and more especially to your native State call for the counsels of the wisest of her citizens.”

Mason received the letter two days later and immediately responded to turn down the appointment citing his “present State of Health…I have been confined by a severe Fit of the Gout, ever since the Second Week in January….I have little Hopes of being able to go abroad, for a considerable Time to come.”

He went on to write, “…even if I was now in New York it wou’d not be in my Power to render our Country any essential Service, and I can’t reconcile myself to the Idea of receiving the Publick’s Money for Nothing.” He said he was “sensible” of the honor of the appointment and thanked the Governor and his council for their favorable opinion “of which I shall ever retain the most grateful Remembrance.

Grayson’s Senate seat was then given to John Walker, another former colonel and aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington. He served until November of 1790, when the Senate elected James Monroe to the post. He served until March 1794 when President Washington appointed him Minister of France.

Monroe was then succeeded in the Senate by a Mason. Two years after George Mason’s death, his nephew Stevens Thomson Mason was elected. He was twice reelected to the office, and died in Philadelphia in 1803 during his third term.

Sources
Lawson, Terry. "Prince William County, VAGenealogy Research, Resources, and Records." Prince William Co VA Genealogy: Belle Aire Plantation. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2014. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vapwilli/history/grayson.shtml
Nehring, Marilyn, et al. "William Grayson." William Grayson. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2014. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~geneal/src/Grayson/william.html.
Rutland, Robert Allen, ed. The Papers of George Mason 1787-1792. Vol. III. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 1970. Print.
Ward, Harry M. For Virginia and for Independence: Twenty-Eight Revolutionary War Soldiers from the Old Dominion. McFarland & Co. North Carolina. 2011. Google Books. Web. 09 Sept. 2014. http://books.google.com/books?id=scNEB1PtH_8C&pg=PA51&dq=william+grayson&hl=en&sa=X&ei=d8UJVJSsNselyASej4LQDA&ved=0CCcQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=dupriest&f=false
Zauzmer, Julie. "In 224 Years, Va. Tomb Has Seen War, Hippies. And Now Public-private Partnership." The Washington Post, Aug. 29, 2014. Web. 09 Sept. 2014.