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James Hughes 2005-08-19 14:44:37
Mostly Southern
John Sr. Newton had a brother George that married Frances Mason daughter of Lemuel Mason and Anne Sewall.
Name: Lemuel Mason
Sex: M
Birth: ABT 1628 in Norfolk, Virginia
Death: BEF 15 SEP 1702 in Norfolk County, Virginia
Note:
Colonel Lemuel Mason is one of the first names of the old record of Portsmouth. As written it might stand for any and every word except one, and that one Lemuel. He was born 1628, just twenty years of age when his father died, and he was twenty-one when he married Alice Seawell, five years younger than himself. She was a daughter of Henry Seawell, merchant, Burgess for Elizabeth City in 1632, and for Norfolk County in 1639. He died about 1644 (1649). The estate of Mr. Matthew Phillips (Phripp?), for estate of said Henry Seawell, as it was left at the decease of the said Alice, wife of the said Henry.) The administratrix was Anne, wife of said Phillips, whom Alice had married soon after her husband died. Her death was speedily followed by that of her second husband, but not before he had married Anne. Henry Seawell was then to be sent to Holland for his education, in charge of Mr. Thomas Lee, spoken of as his kinsman. A deposition shows this son as born May 1, 1639, and another mentions his decease in 1672, and that his sister and heir, then the wife of Col. Lemuel Mason, was thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old. The mother of Mrs. Alice Seawell was Alee, daughter of Thomas Willoughby, who emigrated to Virginia in 1610 and became a leading merchant of the Colony; also justice of Elizabeth City in 1628, Burgess in 1629-32,and Councilor in 1644, 1646, 1650. He patented very large tracts of land in Lower Norfolk.
Col. Lemuel Mason was justice from 1649, sheriff 1664-68, burgess from 1654 to 1657 to 1692, mayor in 1656, presiding justice in 1680, colonel of militia in Lower Norfolk, and holding the same office in North Carolina in 1699. His will was dated June 17, 1695, and probated seven years later. He names his three sons, Thomas, Lemuel and George; daughters, Frances, wife of Mr. George Newton; Alice, wife of Samuel Boush, and widow of William Porter; Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Cocke; Margaret, wife of [paper torn], in England; Anne, wife of Mr. Cron [or something like this, but the paper here is also mutilated]; Mary, wife of Walter Gee, and Dinah. Mrs. Mason's will is also recorded, of date 1704. It recites Frances Sayer, Alice Boush, Mary Cocke, Dinah Thoroughgood.
Still another will from the New England Register, Volume 42, throws light on these daughters of Lemuel Mason - that of Mrs. Margaret Cheeseman in 1679, when only Frances, the eldest, could have reached marriageable age. She is not named, having doubtless received the share to be given to each "on marriage or age of 21." The others are Alice, Elizabeth, Anne, Abigail, Mary and Dinah. Margaret Mason, who lives with -, godmother, we suppose to be the daughter Margaret of Colonel Lemuel, named by him, though she is made - - - [paper torn] with Mrs. Mary Childs, and according to the order in which written in her father's will, could not have been more than twelve years of age. To her was devised "£150, the lease of the house I live in, and the plate I had of John Harrison." To Alice there was given "a great Beaker" a tankard, each to Elizabeth and Anne a great ring; and the rest of the plate to be divided among the others. She names her "Coezin, Elizabeth Thelabell," from which we can put her down as aunt to Colonel Lemuel and his sister, the said Mrs. Thelabell.
We are not to suppose that Elizabeth, Mary and Philia were the only wives of Col. Lemuel Mason's sons. They were mentioned in the wills as last. Two, if not three, seemed the matrimonial adventures of most (men and women), and how it all could have been so adequately arranged is the marvel to us now. Death, not divorce, was the great divider then, and its shafts knew no loiter. But not less fast came the jingle of marriage bells, and scant time was accorded tears.
Mr. Cincinnatus Newton, in a letter a few years ago to the writer of this sketch, expressed the opinion that the names Matthew Phillips and Matthew Phripp were one and the same. Considering the difficulty of deciphering old manuscript, much less names generally misspelled, the wonder is some error did not occur.
It will be recalled that the mother of Mrs. Lemuel Mason married Mr. Matthew Phillips, and while we hear no more of the Phillips family in the connection, that of Phripp is very prominent, and frequently thereafter associated with that of Mason.
As an instance of the miswriting of this name, when Mrs. Frances Phripp, in 1742, stood as godmother to one of the Tucker children, she was entered in their bible as Mrs. Frances Phreep. Late Mrs. Mary Phrip Phripp, in the same office, was Mrs. Streep. The name died out in Norfolk when Matthew died without children of his own, and in 1780 devised a large estate to those of his sister, Mrs. Stephen Wright. He had a brother who married Mrs. Mary Anne Walke (her third husband), leaving a son and daughter, the wife of Dr. James Ramsay. The son married in 1793 Miss Sallie Kieling, but must have left Norfolk, or died without issue.
Book B, Lower Norfolk County, Virginia, 2 Nov. 1646 - 15 Jan. 1651: 9 Apr 1649, Att a Court Holden Att James Citty 9 pr 1649, Present: Sir William Berkeley Knt. Gov. &c Mr. Richard Kempe, Capt. Samll Mathews, Tho. Stegg, Capt. Humphrey Higginson, Geo. Ludlowe, Mr. Henry Woodhouse & Mr. John Hill shall bee of the Quorum in the Commission of Lower Norfolk County. Lemuel Mason hath made it appear upon oath that there is due unto him 400 acres of land for the transportation: Margaret Clitherby? (Nu gives Mary Eitherby), Dorothy Winckford (or Wayne Ford), ROBERT RUSSELL, Tho. Wards, Sarah Walker, Margaret Evefines?, Tho. Reinolds & ROBT WINTER. (Nu 187 - gives Pat. to Hen. Brakes for 250 acres 13 Mar 1649 with the first 5 headrights listed in this certificate. Nothing in Nu on Lemuel Mason for this certificate.
Father: Francis Mason b: ABT 1584 in England
Mother: Alice Ganey b: ABT 1596
Marriage 1 Anne Sewall b: ABT 1635
Married: ABT 27 FEB 1649/50 in Norfolk County, Virginia
Children
Frances Mason b: AFT 1652
Thomas Mason b: AFT 1653
Lemuel Mason , Jr. b: AFT 1649 in Lower Norfolk County, Virginia
George Mason
Elizabeth Mason
Alice Mason b: ABT 1662 in Norfolk County, Virginia
Mary Mason b: in Norfolk County, Virginia
Abigail Mason
Anne Mason
Margaret Mason
Dinah Mason
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Early Colonial Settlers of Southern Maryland and Virginia's Northern Neck Counties
1647 - Bef 1695 (< 48 years)