Lemuel Mason

Mason was born around 1628 in then-vast Surry County to ancient planter Francis Mason and his second wife Alice.[2] His father was a planter in Elizabeth City County, Virginia during the mid-1620s, and after his wife died he remarried and moved to Surry County, then by 1635 patented land in what became Lower Norfolk County (but was then Elizabeth City County) and even hosted the county court and became a churchwarden,, tobacco inspector and even sheriff before his death circa 1648, without a will.[3]

By 1649, Lemuel Mason had moved south to Lower Norfolk County where he became a justice of the peace beginning in 1649 (a position he continued until his death), and then sheriff in 1664 and 1668. He came to command the local militia in 1680, a year in which he also became presiding justice of the county court (and thus effectively administered the county per practice in that era).[1]

Lower Norfolk voters elected Mason to represent them in the House of Burgesses in 1654 and re-elected him in 1657 through 1660.[4] He appears not to have served in the legislature through the entire Long Assembly, but with a lapse before winning election (or agreeing to serve) in 1662, and then again in 1671-1673.[5] During Bacon's Rebellion, Arthur Moreley and Richard Church represented Lower Norfolk County, which did not again send a representative to the legislature until 1680, when either this man or his son of the same name served and was re-elected in 1684 and 1685[6] before other men won election and served in the 1688, 1691-1692[7] In the two separately elected 1693 sessions, this man or his son represented Norfolk County.[8]

He was married to Anne Seawald/Seawell, daughter of Henry Seawald/Seawell of Sewell's Point. Together they had children:[2]

• Elizabeth Mason, who married (first) William Major, and (second) Captain Thomas Cocke
• Lemuel Mason, living in 1705
• George Mason, who married Phillis. They had children Thomas Mason, who married Mary Newton; George Mason; Abigail Mason; and Frances Mason
• Thomas Mason, who became a Burgess in October 1696. He married Elizabeth. They had children Lemuel Mason (no issue); Ann Mason, who married Captain Thomas Willoughby; Mary Mason, who married William Ellison; and Margaret Mason
• Frances Mason, who married (first) George Newton, and (second) Mr. Sayer
• Alice Mason, who married (first) Robert Hodge, and (second) Samuel Boush
• Mary Mason, who married (first) Mr. Walton, and (second) Mr. Cocke
• Dinah Mason, who married Mr. Thoroughgood
• Margaret Mason
• Anne Mason, who married William Kendall II, son of William Kendall[9]

Mason's will was dated June 17, 1695 and was proved September 15, 1702.[10]