GEORGE MASON VERSUS benjamin franklin. 157

the Grand Company, and that "the whole claim of the Ohio Company is denominated two shares, which are entered on the minutes of the G. C. [to him] as agent for the Ohio Company." The difficulties in the way of correspondence between the company in Virginia and its agent in England were so remarkable as to lead to the inference that their mail was intercepted. Not hearing from any one in America, Colonel Mercer was won over to the Vandalia scheme, and he was promised the appointment of governor of the new colony. He wrote to George William Fairfax on the 2d of December, 1773, telling him of the compromise that was proposed, by which the two companies should be merged into one. But new scruples arose on the part of the English government: "I am not yet Governor," he adds, "and a fresh objection, the last I hope they have to offer, has arisen. against the policy of the grant, so far as it relates to Britain.""

George Mason's correspondence with Colonel Mercer on this subject has not been preserved. But a valuable paper written by Colonel Mason in 1773, "Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with Some Remarks on Them," was evidently written to refute the arguments of Franklin and in support of the Ohio Company's claim. And the cause of the company was the cause of Virginia. This manuscript is referred to with commendation by both Bancroft and Grigsby. The latter says that it "was regarded as an unanswerable exposition of colonial rights under the charters," and "proved a rich mine of authority in the controversy then waging between the King and his colonies." After a full discussion of the charters and quotations from acts of the Assembly under them, Colonel Mason goes on to say that these "demonstrate that the country to the westward of the Alleghany Mountains, on both sides of the Ohio River, is part of Virginia. And consequently that no new Government or Proprietary can legally be established there. Nor hath any attempt of that sort ever been made from the time of the

"The Fairfaxes of England and America," p. 140

"Virginia Convention of 1776," H. B. Grigsby.

said charter [the charter of King Charles II.] until the late extraordinary application of Mr. Walpole and his associates, to the Crown to grant them a Proprietary Charter and create a new government between the Alleghany mountains and the River Ohio (in direct violation of the Virginia Charters), which would not only have taken away great part of the territory of this colony, but would have removed from under the immediate protection of the Crown and the Government of Virginia several thousand inhabitants settled there under the faith of the said Charters, etc. . . To this illegal and injurious attempt several Gentlemen in Virginia, the Ohio Company, were made in some measure accessory, without their knowledge and very contrary to their inclination; but at the first general meeting after having received notice of it, they unanimously declared their disapprobation of the measure and their absolute refusal of having any concern in it, which regulation they not only entered in their own books and communicated to the member of their Company in England, but for their justification to posterity sent a copy thereof to the Governor and Council to be entered if they thought fit, on their journals."'

1 Appendix v.

CHAPTER V.

THE FAIRFAX COUNTY COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

1773-1775.

In 1773, the peaceful household at "Gunston Hall" was visited by a great affliction in the death of Mrs. Mason, the devoted wife and mother, the kind mistress, who for twentythree years had been its presiding domestic genius. The eldest child at this time was a youth of twenty and the eldest daughter was a year or two younger. Thomas, the youngest son and child, was born in 1770, and was baptized, as the family Bible records, by the Rev. Lee Massey, Mr. Martin Cockburn and Capt. John Lee standing god-fathers and Mrs. Mary Massey and Mrs. Ann Cockburn god-mothers. The little Elizabeth, the youngest of four sisters, had been born two years previously. They were a happy united family, writes General Mason in his reminiscences. "Of my mother," he says, "being only seven years old at the time of her death, I have in most things but an imperfect recollection, but some matters relating to her of a domestic nature are yet perfectly written in my remembrance. As my father was spared until I had grown to manhood and indeed entered on the busy scenes of life, I of course remember much of him. We, the children, all lived together in great harmony at the paternal mansion, until the respective periods when each by marriage, or pursuits in business for themselves, were successively drawn off from

that common home." The son's recollections of his hon

mother's room are thus minutely detailed:

"I remember well the appearance and arrangement of her chamber. There stood, among other things, a large old chest of drawers so-called, which held the children's clothes, to which, little fellow as I was, I was often carried to get something, or would run there to rummage it without leave. The lower tier consisted of three drawers, the middle and larger of these was the [word illegible] drawer, that on the right and smaller was the [word illegible] drawer. Next above and the whole length of the case was the cap drawer, next above that, a deep one also and of the whole length, was the gown drawer. Next above was the shirt drawer, and next to that the jacket drawer. Then above all came the drawers, each of half length, which were kept locked. They were devoted to my mother's more private use and for matters of greater value. The other drawers were always unlocked and each was devoted to the purpose its name designated, and by that name it was known and used by all the family. There were also two large, deep closets, one on each side of the deep recess afforded by a spacious stack of chimnies. The one on the right of the chimney contained the current part of my mother's wardrobe and was called her closet, or, as the case might be by children or servants, 'mama's closet,' or 'mistress's closet.' The other, on the left, was emphatically designated the closet. It held the smaller or more precious stores for the table, and would now, I suppose, be called an upper pantry. I can't forget one of the articles deposited in my mother's closet. It was a small, green horsewhip, with a silver head and ring by which it was hung there against one of the walls, and which my mother used to carry when she rode on horseback, as she often did when in health. This little instrument was applied sometimes to other purposes as discipline required among the children, and we used to call it the 'green doctor.'"

Of Mrs. Mason's last illness we have this account:

"My revered mother was afflicted for a considerable time and confined to her room or bed for some months by the disease which terminated in her death. Long as that has been ago and young as I then was, yet I am confident in the recollection of her and of some of the scenes of her latter days, as well as of the

DEATH OF HIS WIFE.

161

furniture and structure of her room, and the more so that they have often since passed in review from time to time in my mind. She was attended during her illness by Dr. Craik, who lived in Charles County, Maryland, near my grandfather Eilbeck, and who was afterwards the surgeon-general of the Revolutionary army, and was the intimate and personal friend of General Washington as he was of my father. Among his prescriptions for her was weak milk punch to be taken in bed in the morning. Little urchin as I was, it is yet fresh on my mind, that I was called sometimes by this beloved mother to her bedside to drink a little of this beverage, which I loved very much, from the bottom of the cup. The last that I remember, of that affectionate parent and excellent woman (for I know by the tradition of the surrounding country, among rich and poor, that she was beloved and admired by everybody for her virtues and charities), is that she took me one day in her arms on her sick bed, I believe it must have been but a few days before her death, told me she was soon going to leave us all, kissed me and gave me her blessing, and charged me to be a good boy, to love and obey my father, to love and never to quarrel with my brothers and sisters, to be kind to the servants, and if God spared me, when I grew up, to be an honest and useful man. The precise words in which this departing and all-affecting charge and blessing were conveyed, I, of course, cannot be certain about, but the substance of them I know I have retained; and I well remember that I had intelligence and sensibility enough to be aware of the sacredness of the charge, and of the awful crisis in the family it foreboded, that I received it with a swollen heart and fell immediately into a hearty and long cry. It may be supposed that I have retained a perfect recollection of this scene when I say, as I can with truth, that I have been in the habit of often recalling it to my mind, with pious regard, as well in my younger as in latter days, and I believe and hope it has had its influence on my course of life. I ought not to omit to add that it was my mother's constant habit to make me and the other younger children, one or two at a time, kneel down before her, put our hands on her lap, and say our prayers every night before we went to bed. I remember well her funeral, that the whole family went into deep mourning suddenly prepared, that I was led clothed in black to her grave, that I saw