Huntley: A Mason Family Country House. Tony P. Wrenn

which seems to have received the most notice. Mrs. Marian Gouverneur wrote in her book, As I Remember:

      Another Virginia family of social prominence, whose members mingled much in Washington Society, while I was still visiting the Winfield Scotts, was that of the Masons of "Colross," the name of their old homestead near Alexandria in Virginia. Mrs. Thomson F. Mason was usually called Mrs. "Colross" Mason to distinguish her from another family by the same name, that of James M. Mason, United States Senator from Virginia. The family thought nothing of the drive to Washington and no entertainment was quite complete without the "Mason girls," who were especially bright and attractive young women. Open house was kept at this delightful country seat, and many were the pleasant parties given there....[11]

      Indeed the Mason occupancy of Colross made such an impression, that for years afterward the house was known as "The Mason Mansion." During the Civil War, on October 12, 1864, the Alexandria Gazette, in reporting the military occupation of the town, carried the following item on Colross:

      ... The fine old Mason mansion, in the suburbs of the town, was hired by an army officer.... The Mason mansion ... is a fair type of the residence of a wealthy Virginian. A wide hall in the centre opens into various rooms, while the front entrance is approached through a pleasant courtyard. At the rear of the house is a spacious area, paved with marble in diamond shaped blocks, looking out upon a large garden, well shaded with fruit trees and surrounded by a heavy brick wall. At one corner of this garden is the family tomb, in which are the remains of old Judge Mason, the former owner of the estate, who died just before the war broke out. He was a near relative of the present Confederate Commissioner to England, and his widow now resides at Point of Rocks....

      Colross remained in the Mason family until the 1880's, Mrs. Betty Carter Smoot, Alexandria historian, who lived at Colross, wrote in 1934, of the house and family:

      Jonathan Swift and his wife, and the Masons, who for many years resided at Colross, are said to have lived in great style and elegance. As regarded the Masons, there were still some evidences of this when we went there. Although pretty well denuded of its furnishings, there were one or two fine old mahogany pieces which had not been removed, and some handsome mirrors, with gilded frames, of a size appropriate to the surroundings. In the garret was stored quantities of china, remains of dinner sets, some in white and gold and others in blue willow pattern. There were some beautiful old cut glass decanters, wine glasses, and goblets. I remember also some vases and other bric-a-brac. Much of this was mutilated, but it furnished a fair sample of the style of living maintained in palmy days of the past. These belongings of the Masons were all packed, under the supervision of a daughter of the family, Miss Caroline Mason, and disposed of by her.[12]

      When Thomson F. Mason died on December 21, 1838, his obituary in the Alexandria Gazette ran two full columns.[13] It was noted that Mason, who was a Judge of the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia at the time of his death, had:

      ... graduated at Princeton with the highest honors of that institution ... studied law and practiced with much success and celebrity, until he was elevated by the Executive of the United States to that Station on the Bench, which he filled with such ability at the time of his decease ... his services were eminently valuable not only in the character of Chief Magistrate of their City (Alexandria), the duties of which he discharged for many years, but in all their public undertakings....

      That same issue of the Gazette carried resolutions of the Common Council of Alexandria decreeing that they would:

      ... attend his funeral, and will wear crape on the left arm for one month.... That, as a further mark of respect, and to evince the sense of his community of their loss, the great bell in the public building be tolled on Sunday next, from 1 o'clock P.M., till half past 4 P.M....

      Members of the Bar and Officers of the Courts of Alexandria County voted to:

      ... attend his funeral ... and wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days ... that a committee of three be appointed respectively to tender them [family] our condolence ... that the proceeding of the meeting be published in the Alexandria Gazette....

      The Bar and Officers of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia voted to:

      ... attend his funeral, and, during the residue of the term, wear the usual badges of mourning ... that the Chairman [Francis Scott Key] with Richard Coxe and Alexander Hunter, Esqrs., be a Committee to tender to the family of the deceased the sympathy of this meeting at the death of one endeared to us by long acquaintance, which has made known the character of the deceased as one deserving of our warmest personal regard and highest respect, and which rendered this event a great public loss, as well as a private affliction....

      T. F. Mason had been appointed to the newly organized Criminal Court of the District of Columbia less than six months before his death. He was the first judge appointed to that court, and its only judge during its formative period. As a Justice of Peace he had received his first appointment in February 1828, and was reappointed in 1833, and 1838.[14]

      The story of Mason's life presented here is only a partial one but it is included to show something of the type of man who built Huntley.[15]

      Chapter 1 Notes

[3] Stevens Thompson Mason, Mason Family Chart (Baltimore: privately printed, 1907). All genealogical material is taken either from this chart or from Kate Mason Rowland, The Life of George Mason.

[4] Rowland, George Mason, p. 365.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., p. 307; The Letters of Elijah Fletcher, ed. by Martha von Briesen, (University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, 1965), p. 8.

[7] Princeton Alumni Association, Princeton University

[8] Mary G. Powell, The History of Old Alexandria Virginia, (Richmond: William Byrd Press, 1928), p. 324. In her list of the Mayors of Alexandria Mrs. Powell also lists T.F. Mason incorrectly as S. Thomson (sic) Mason, although she spells the name without a "p" there.

[9] William F. Carne, Alexandria Business Book (Alexandria: M. Hill Co., 1897).