William Mason (1757–1818)
William Mason (October 22, 1757 – February 7, 1818) was an American planter and militiaman during the Revolutionary War. He was the third son of George Mason IV, a well-known Virginia patriot and statesman, and he grew up at Gunston Hall, educated by tutors.
During the war, Mason joined the Fairfax Militia and served as a captain under Henry Lee III in South Carolina. In 1780 his father declined Lee’s offer for him to continue in military service, saying that William’s future lay in farming and gentility. He was presented with a sword by General George Washington, a gift connected to a story about it having once belonged to Charles III of Spain. Mason briefly left military service in late 1780 and early 1781.
In 1780 he inherited the Eilbeck family estates, Araby and Mattawoman, in Charles County, Maryland, from his maternal grandfather after the death of his grandmother, Sarah Eilbeck. He also received all of his father’s properties in Charles County along Chicamuxen and Mattawoman Creeks.
Mason did not marry until after his father’s death. On July 11, 1793, he married Ann Stuart at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in King George, Virginia. Ann’s family was prominent in the church, with her father and grandfather serving as rector of St. Paul’s. The couple had five children; four of them grew up to marry.
Their second son, also named George Mason, bought Lexington from his uncle’s estate and later left it to his son, George Mason of Springbank, who died without children in Portland, Oregon, in 1888.
William Mason died on February 7, 1818, at his Mattawoman plantation in Maryland, at age 60. The Araby house still remains, though the main plantation house does not. His descendants stayed at Araby until 1849, when his daughter Mary Elizabeth Mason sold 402 acres, including the mansion, to William Thompson.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:12 (CET).