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Rh ter of the English forces. In November of the latter year he procured from the council for New England a grant of territory on the coast between Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers, which was des- ignated as New Hampshire, and also a patent for a tract embracing Lake Champlain and its vicin- ity, styled Laeonia. In 1630 he despatched addi- tional colonists to the Piscataqua, and the next year formed a partnership with Gorges and others for the purposes of trade and settlement there. In 1632 he became a member of the Great council for New England, and was soon afterward chosen vice-president. About this time he was appointed captain of the South sea castle, a fortress at the entrance of Portsmouth harbor, England. He was Judge of the Hampshire courts in 1635, and sub- sequently a commissioner to visit annually all the forts and castles throughout England. He was then appointed vice-admiral of New England, and was about sailing for this country to assume the duties of the office, when he died. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Mason's rights in New Hampshire were sold to Gov. Samuel Allen in 1691, and proved a fruitful source of litigation to that official and his heirs. In January, 1746, John TuFTON Mason, a descendant, disposed of his rights for £1,500 to twelve gentlemen of Portsmouth, who were known as the •' Masonian Proprietors."

MASON, John Young, cabinet officer, b. in Greensville county, Va., 18 April, 1799 ; d. in Paris, France, 3 Oct., 1859. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1816, studied law at Litchfield, Conn., was admitted to the bar in 1819, and practised with great success in South- ampton county, Va. He was successively a mem- ber of the legislature of Virginia and of the State constitutional convention of 1829, a member of congress from 1831 till 1837, and chairman of the committee on foreign affairs and judge of the U. S. district court and of the circuit court of Vir- ginia. In 1844 he was appointed secretary of the navy by President Tyler, and in 1845 President Polk made him attorney-general of the United States, but the next year he was again placed at the head of the navy department. In 1849 he re- moved to Richmond, Va., and resumed the prac- tice of the law. He was president of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1850. In 1853 he was appointed U. S. minister to France, and he was reappointed by President Buchanan, remaining in that post until his death.

MASON, Jonathan, senator, b. in Boston, Mass., 30 Aug., 1752; d. there, 1 Nov., 1831. He was graduated at Princeton in 1774, studied law under John Adams, and was admitted to the bar in 1777. On 5 March, 1780, he delivered the offi- cial oration before the authorities of Boston on the tenth anniversary of the Boston massacre, of which he had been an eye-witness. He was repeatedly sent to the legislature, was a member of the gov- ernor's council in 1798, and was elected to the U. S. senate to fill a vacancy, serving from 19 Dec, 1800, till 3 March, 1803. In that body he took an active part in the debates, especially those on the repeal of the judiciary act of 1801. He was elect- ed to the lower house of congress as a Federalist, serving from 1 Dec, 1817, till 15 May, 1820, when he resigned. Mr. Mason held a high position at the bar and possessed great dignity of character.

MASON, Lowell, musician, b. in Medfield, Nor- folk CO., Mass., 8 Jan., 1792 ; d. in Orange, N. J., 11 Aug., 1872. His father was a mechanic in a small New England village, and his early opportu- nities for education were meagre ; but he had from childhood a passion for music and before he was twenty years of age had learned to play on every kind of musical instrument that had come within his reach. He was also so proficient in vocal music that at sixteen he was leader of the village choir, and a teacher of singing-classes. At twenty he went to Savannah, where he continued to practise, lead, and teach. While residing there he arranged, with some assistance, a collection of psalm tunes, that was based on Gardiner's " Sacred Melodies," which latter was compiled from the works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, adding to them tunes of Ills own composition. This was published by the Handel and Haydn society in 1821 as the " Boston Handel and Haydn Society's Collection of Church Music," the compiler's name being al- most entirely suppi-essed. The book was a decided success and led to Mason's removal to Boston in 1827, and his taking " general charge of music in the churches there." He now began the instruc- tion of classes in vocal music, devoting special at- tention to the training of children to the per- formance of the alto part in chorals, and to the introduction of vocal music into the public schools. In 1829, his attention being called to the Pesta- lozzian method of teaching music, and especially to the various improvements upon it, Mr. Mason adopted it after care- ful and protracted examination. Juve- nile classes were es- tablished and taught gratuitously by him for many years, but he was soon com- pelled, by the extent of his labors, to take an assistant. Under his influence vocal music received a new and extraordinary impulse in Boston and throughout New England. Eminent teachers were intro- duced into private schools ; the Boston academy of music was established by him in 1832 ; music was prescribed as a regular branch of instruction in the public schools of Boston, and subsequently very generally throughout the entire country; permanent musical classes, lectures on music, concerts, schools for instrumental music, and teachers' institutes, were also widely established. In 1837 he visited Europe and made himself acquainted with all the improvements in music-teaching in the continental cities. On his return he published the results of his journey in " Musical Letters from Abroad " (New York, 1853). In 1855 Mr. Mason received from the University of the city of New York the degree of doctor of music, the first instance of the conferring of that degree by an American university. Tlie growing taste for music that he had inspired incited him to prepare about this time numerous text-books for juvenile classes, glee - books, and collections of church music. During his later years he labored diligently to promote the introduction of strictly congregational singing into the churches, and to this end he devoted much time to the preparation, in connection with Edwards A. Park and Austin Phelps, of " The Sabbath Hymn- and Tune-Book " (New York, 1859), which attained instant popularity. The last years of his life were passed with his sons at Orange, N. J., and his devotion to musical study and composition continued to the end.