Jeremiah Mason

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Jeremiah Mason

| image = Gilbert Stuart - Jeremiah Mason(page 45 crop).jpg

| caption = portrait by Gilbert Stuart

| jr/sr1 = United States Senator

| state1 = New Hampshire

| term_start1 = June 10, 1813

| term_end1 = June 16, 1817

| preceded1 = Charles Cutts

| succeeded1 = Clement Storer

| office2 = Attorney General of New Hampshire

| term2 = 1802–1805

| birth_date = {{birth date|1768|4|27}}

| birth_place = Lebanon, Connecticut

| death_date = {{death date and age|1848|10|14|1768|4|27}}

| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts

| residence =

| alma_mater = Yale College

| party = Federalist

| otherparty =

| spouse = {{marriage|Mary Means|November 6, 1799}}

| relations = Ellen Francis Mason (granddaughter)

| children = Robert Means Mason

| signature = Signature of Jeremiah Mason (1768–1848).png

}}

Jeremiah Mason (April 27, 1768 – October 14, 1848) was a United States senator from New Hampshire.

Early life

Mason was born in Lebanon, Connecticut on April 27, 1768. He was a son of Jeremiah Mason (1729/30–1813) and the former Elizabeth Fitch (1731–1809).

He graduated from Yale College in 1788, studied law, moved to Vermont, and was admitted to the bar in 1791.

Career

After several years in Vermont, he moved to New Hampshire where he continued to practice law. From 1802 to 1805, he served as the attorney general of New Hampshire.

Mason was elected as a Federalist to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1813, and served from June 10, 1813, until June 16, 1817, when he resigned. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1815.{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistm|title=Member List, American Antiquarian Society|website=www.americanantiquarian.org}} He was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1820-1821 and 1824, and was president of the Portsmouth branch of the United States Bank in 1828–1829. Mason exchanged letters with Nicholas Biddle, the president of the Bank of the United States.{{cite web |title=Collection: Jeremiah Mason papers |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/4180 |website=archives.yale.edu |publisher=Archives at Yale |access-date=27 February 2020}}

He moved to Boston in 1832 and retired from the practice of law in 1838, but continued as chamber counsel up to the time of his death in 1848.

Personal life

File:CharlesMason GraceChurch Boston 19thc.png

On November 6, 1799, Mason was married to Mary Means (1777–1858), daughter of Robert Means and Mary (née McGregor) Means.Daniel F. Secomb, History of the Town of Amherst (1883), p. 689 Mary was a sister of Elizabeth Means, wife of Congregationalist minister Jesse Appleton, parents of Jane Means Appleton (wife of the 14th U.S. President Franklin Pierce). They were the parents of eight children, including:

George Means Mason (1800–1865){{cite book |last1=Mason |first1=Jeremiah |title=Memoir, autobiography and correspondence of Jeremiah Mason |date=1917 |publisher=Lawyers' International Publishing Co. |page=[https://archive.org/details/memoirautobiogra00maso/page/441 441] |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirautobiogra00maso |access-date=27 February 2020 |language=en}}
Robert Means Mason (1810–1879), who married Sarah Ellen Francis (1819–1865), daughter of Ebenezer Francis and Elizabeth (née Thorndike) Francis, in 1843.{{cite book|last1=Mason|first1=Theodore West|title=Family Record in Our Line of Descent from Major John Mason of Norwich, Connecticut|date=1909|publisher=Grafton Press|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/familyrecordinou00maso/page/37 37]|url=https://archive.org/details/familyrecordinou00maso}}
Charles Mason (1812–1862), the Rector of Grace Church in Boston who married Susannah Lawrence (1817–1844), a daughter of the wealthy merchant Amos Lawrence. After her death, he married Anna Huntington Lyman (1821–1883) in 1849. Anna's sister was married to agricultural writer Richard L. Allen.{{cite book |last1=Society |first1=Massachusetts Historical |title=Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society |date=1887 |publisher=The Massachusetts Historical Society |page=281 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TP1JAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA281 |access-date=27 February 2020 |language=en}}

Mason died in Boston on October 14, 1848. He was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.{{cite web |title=MASON, Jeremiah (1768–1848) |url=https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=M000217 |website=bioguideretro.congress.gov |publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |access-date=27 February 2020}}

=Descendants=

Through his son Robert, he was a grandfather of Elizabeth Mason (1844–1924), who married Robert Charles Winthrop Jr. (son of U.S. Senator and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Robert Charles Winthrop) on June 1, 1869 (ancestors of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry).{{cite web |last1=Reitwiesner |first1=William Addams |title=Ancestry of Sen. John Kerry |url=http://www.wargs.com/political/kerry.html |website=www.wargs.com |access-date=27 February 2020}} He was also the grandfather of Ellen Francis Mason, Alfred Mason, Anna Frances Mason, Clara Thorndike Mason, and Ida Means Mason.

References

External links

{{find a Grave|7499716}}
[http://www.wargs.com/political/kerry.html The Ancestors of Senator John Forbes Kerry (b. 1943)]
[https://www.si.edu/object/npg_MA220146 Jeremiah Mason] at the Smithsonian

{{s-ttl|title=Federalist nominee for Governor of New Hampshire|years=1818}}

{{U.S. Senator box

| state=New Hampshire

| class=3

| before=Charles Cutts

| after=Clement Storer

| alongside=Nicholas Gilman, Thomas W. Thompson, David L. Morril

| years=1813–1817}}

Category:1768 births

Category:1848 deaths

Category:People from Lebanon, Connecticut

Category:New Hampshire attorneys general