Mason, John, 1600 - 1672

Born in England, John Mason (c. 1600-1672) fought in the Lowland Wars under Sir Thomas Fairfax before immigrating to New England. A captain of the Dorchester militia, he removed to Hingham and then Windsor in the Connecticut Colony. He was promoted to lead the Connecticut offensive against the Pequot Tribe in 1637.  In 1656, the Connecticut General Court asked him to write an account of the war, "A Brief History of the Pequot War," which first appeared in manuscript in 1677 and edited in print by Thomas Prince later in 1736. Promoted to the rank of major, Mason served as deputy of the Connecticut government from 1637 to 1642, magistrate from 1642 to 1660, deputy governor from 1660 to 1669, and assistant from 1669 to 1672.  He was named as a patentee in the Charter of Connecticut (1662).  For most of his life, he negotiated Indian relations for the colony and for the United Colonies of New England. He acted as guardian for the Mohegans and became a close ally to the Mohegan sachem Uncas. For his fierce loyalty to that tribe, he incurred the political resentments of John Winthrop, Jr. and Roger Williams. In 1660 with several others, he founded the town of Norwich on the Thames River, where he died on January 30, 1672.  ODAB