sented his surrender of the lands as having respect to "nothing more than the jurisdiction right," and alleged, "that the title to the soil was vested in their family, as guardians or overseers of the Indians."* This was familiarly known as the "Mohégan case." It was agitated for about seventy years, and not finally decided, until George the Third, in Council, just before the revolutionary war, gave a decree in favor of the colony, and thus put the agitation of the case to rest.

There was a large tract of five hundred and fifty acres of land, on the Shetucket River, granted to Major Mason, (1668,) by Uncas, and his son Attawanhood; and another tract, containing the town of Windham, was received, (February, 1675,) by Captain John Mason, a son of Major Mason, together with the Rev. James Fitch, and fourteen other legatees, from Joshua, son of Uncas.t

Having, for many years, resided at Saybrook, Major Mason removed (1660) to Norwich; where, advanced in years, and disabled by bodily infirmities, "he excused himself from the service of the commonwealth," and soon after died, before the 4th day of June, 1672, in the 73d year of his age, honored and lamented; not more sagacious, valiant, and intrepid, as a military leader, than he was wise and just, as a legislator and a magistrate.

It is worthy of particular remark, that, in his long life of public duty, he was, in a great measure, free from those evils which usually attend the prominent, especially when they are made, by popular favor, conspicuous marks for the shafts of envy. In the year 1663, however, we

* Trumbull's Hist., B. I, ch. XVII; and Memoir of the Mohegans, in Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. IX, p. 81.

+ Barber's Conn. Hist. Coll., art. Windham, p. 443.

+ Trumbull's Hist. of Conn., B. I, ch. XIV.

find in the proceedings of the Court, that there were some "uncomfortable debates," in which unjust remarks were made, in reference to him; but the Court, it is recorded, "declared" that he "stands clear." And that he did not wholly escape from the assaults of malice, is to be seen in his being compelled to bring, in his old age, the year only before his death, an action for slander and defamation; as plaintiff, gaining his suit.

At the request of the General Court, he wrote a Brief History of the Pequot War.* In his preface, addressed to the "judicious reader," he modestly says, "I shall only draw the curtain, and open my little casement;" and he records the facts of the history, "that some small glimmering may be left to posterity, what difficulties and obstructions their forefathers met with, in their first settling these desert parts of America; how God was pleased to prove them, and how, by His wise providence, He ordered and disposed all their occasions and affairs for them, in regard to both their civils and ecclesiasticals."t

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His house at Norwich was a little south of the old court-house, on the old road leading to New London, near the bridge" over the Yantic, and was " bought by the town (1692) for a parsonage." In a neighboring field of graves repose his ashes, but "nothing designates the grave of the first military officer, and the Deputy Governor of the colony of Connecticut."

* First published at Boston, in 1736; and reprinted in the Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. VIII, pages 120-153, second series.

+ There are three other contemporaneous histories of these events, by John Underhill, Lion Gardiner, and P. Vincent; all printed in the Mass. Hist. Coll. We have other accounts, by the Rev. Increase Mather, and the Rev. William Hubbard; and one in verse by Governor Wolcott, in his Account, &c. of the Hon. John Winthrop, in the Court of King Charles II.

Ellis' Life of Mason, ch. VII.

He left three sons and four daughters, by his second wife, whom he married in the year 1640; his first wife having died at Windsor. They were, Priscilla, born in October, 1641; Samuel, July, 1644; John, August, 1646; Rachel, October, 1648; Anne, June, 1650; Daniel, April, 1652; and Elizabeth, August, 1654.

To these children are to be traced the genealogies of very many descendants, conspicuous for intellectual endowments, and moral worth.*

DANIEL, the third son, resided at Lebanon; was, for a time, (1679,) a school-master at Norwich; and died (1736) at Stonington, at the age of 85 years.

His son DANIEL† was born at Roxbury, in the year 1676, his mother having been sent thither to her friends, during the Indian troubles at Norwich; and he was baptized there, (A. D. 1676, month 2d, day 9th,) by the pastor of the first church at Roxbury, ELIOT, the Apostle of the Indians. He married, (April 19th, 1704,) Dorothy, daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Hobart, of Haddam, and died, leaving one son, his only child. The widow, Dorothy Mason, then married (October 1st, 1707,) Hezekiah Brainerd,‡ Esq., and became the mother of the celebrated David Brainerd, the missionary to the Indians.

The son and only child of Daniel Mason and Dorothy Hobart, was JEREMIAH. He was born, March 4th, 1705, and married (May 24th, 1727,) Mary, daughter of Thomas, who was the son of William Clark, one of the first settlers of Haddam. Jeremiah, at the time of his father's death,

* For the descendants of all these children, except those of Daniel here given, see the Appendix A to this volume.

+ See Appendix B.

He was, afterward, one of the council of his Majesty George I, for the colony of Connecticut.

was six months old; and when his mother married Hezekiah Brainerd, he was but two years and six months of age; so that, from his early infancy, he was a step-child. And he was brought up "after the most straitest sect of our religion," by a rigid Puritan, his step-father, who, as the family tradition tells, "looked after the boys." It tells, also, that "Jeremiah, when a man, once coming in rather late at night, Mr. Brainerd asked, Jeremiah, where have you been out, so late at night?' 'I have been,' said he, 'to see Mary Clark.' 'Oh, very well,' answered the stepfather, go to bed.'" After his marriage to Mary Clark, Jeremiah removed to Franklin, and there had four sons and four daughters.*

ANNA, the third daughter, married Dr. William Whiting of Great Barrington, and became the mother of MARY ANNA (Boardman,) the subject of this Memorial, her third child and eldest daughter.

While the progenitor of these descendants, the hero of the Pequot war, was, for many years, serving, in the field and in the cabinet, the interests of Connecticut, and the New England colonies in general; his friend, WILLIAM WHITING of Hartford, was conspicuously and usefully employed.

In the year 1637, he, (at Hartford,) and his friend Mason, (at Windsor,) were chosen members of the General Court; and in 1642, they were both chosen Magistrates, with six others.

Mr. Whiting was re-appointed, for six years, as a Magistrate; and while he held this office, (for "it appears to have been customary, for a number of years, to choose the Secretary and the Treasurer from among the Magis

* An account of them and their families is given in Appendix C.

trates,"*) he was chosen also (1643) Treasurert of the colony.

He acted, by appointment of the Court, with his friend Mason, in the erection of fortifications, for the defence of the colonies against the Indians; and they both were collectors of tribute from the Indian tribes on Long Island and on the main. He was also appointed, with Governor Haynes and others, to build a ship (1642) for the protection of the colony.‡

The Dutch, at that time (1642) settled in New Netherland, (New York,) exhibited, as the history of the times abundantly testifies, an austere and imperious temper toward their Connecticut neighbors, whom they regarded in the light of intruders in the Dutch territory, which the people of New Netherland held, by virtue of a commission from the States-General to the West India Company. The controversy between the Dutch and English, was "the prelude to a series of rancorous, but bloodless hostilities, and of tantalizing vexations, unparalleled in all the colonial annals of North America."§

As the Dutch persisted in claiming|| ALL the territory occupied by the Connecticut colonies, asserting that they had purchased the lands on both sides of the Versche

* Trumbull's Hist., B. I, ch. VII.

+ Winthrop's Hist. of New England, Savage's note, Vol. II, an. 1646. Savage corrects the mistake of Mather, who says that Mr. Whiting was a Magistrate in 1637.

+ Hinman's Catalogue, art. Gov. John Haynes.

§ Moulton's Hist. of New York, Part II, end of ch. VI.

This claim is mentioned by Smith, (Hist. of New York, Vol. I, Part I, p. 3,) who quotes (Note B,) a pamphlet published (1651) at Amsterdam, entitled, "Beschryvinghe van Virginia, Nieuw Nederland." See also the Hist. of New Netherland, by Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, (Vol. I, B. III, ch. 3, an. 1642,) who gives an account of the Dutch claims, and of the commission of Messrs. Whiting and Hill.