George Mason (1725–1792)—our 2nd cousin 8× removed—stands as one of the most brilliant yet overlooked architects of American liberty. A wealthy planter, self-taught scholar, and fierce defender of individual rights, he never sought fame or office, yet his words helped ignite the Revolution, shaped the Declaration of Independence, and ultimately forced the creation of the Bill of Rights.
Born on a Northern Virginia plantation, Mason inherited a fortune—and the moral burden of hundreds of enslaved people—after his father died when he was just ten. Raised by his mother and tutored by his uncle’s vast library, he grew into a man of deep intellect and quiet intensity. In 1755 he completed Gunston Hall, the graceful brick mansion on the Potomac that became his sanctuary and the backdrop for some of the most important political writing in American history.
Mason detested politics—“I had rather be at home planting my cabbages,” he once grumbled—yet duty repeatedly pulled him into the fray. In 1774 he drafted the Fairfax Resolves, one of the earliest and boldest challenges to British authority. Two years later, in a few intense weeks in May–June 1776, he almost single-handedly wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
Its opening words still thunder:
“That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights… namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
Thomas Jefferson lifted entire passages almost verbatim into the Declaration of Independence. Mason’s document became the model for the first modern bill of rights in history—and, thanks to his later stubbornness, for the federal Bill of Rights itself.
Yet Mason’s story is laced with painful contradiction. He owned more than 300 enslaved people and never freed them, yet he condemned slavery in scorching terms. At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia he called the slave trade an “infernal traffic” and declared:
“Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.”
He demanded an immediate end to the importation of enslaved people; the Convention refused, agreeing only to a 20-year delay. That compromise, along with the absence of any explicit protection for individual liberties, was too much for Mason.
On September 17, 1787, he became one of only three delegates who refused to sign the finished Constitution. Days later he published his famous Objections to this Constitution of Government, a blistering critique that galvanized the Anti-Federalist movement and made the addition of a Bill of Rights politically unavoidable. James Madison, who had initially resisted, eventually introduced the amendments that became the first ten in the Constitution—largely because Mason had made it impossible to ignore the demand.
Mason spent his final years at Gunston Hall, refusing a U.S. Senate seat rather than serve a government he feared would erode liberty. He died in 1792, convinced he had failed. Yet today we know he succeeded beyond his own measure: the rights he insisted upon are the very foundation of American freedom.
A few of his most powerful lines:
- “In all our associations… let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim—that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people.” (1775)
- “We claim nothing but the liberty and privileges of Englishmen… these rights have not been forfeited by any act of ours… we will transmit them, unimpaired to our posterity.” (1776)
- “That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.” (Virginia Declaration of Rights, Article 15)
Our direct lineage to George Mason IV:
George IV Mason (1725–1792) — 2nd cousin 8× removed
George III Mason (1690–1735) — father
George II Mason (1660–1716) — father
George Mason immigrant (1629–1686) — father
Richard Mason (1670–1730) — son of George Mason immigrant
William Mason (1692–1745) — son of Richard
Margaret Mason (1725–1752) — daughter of William
James Boyd (DNA match, 1757–1791) — son of Margaret
James Boyd (1783–1854) — son of James
Valentine Boyd (1811–1870) — son of James
Sophia Boyd (1836–1908) — daughter of Valentine — our 2nd great-grandmother
George Mason never wanted statues or glory. He wanted a nation where ordinary people could live free from tyranny. Because he refused to compromise on that vision, we still enjoy the protections he fought for—every single day.
Special thanks to Grok xAI for updated information.
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