Richard Mason (politician)

The painting of Richard Mason's portrait

Sir Richard Mason (c. 1633 – 8 March 1685) was an English Member of Parliament and Courtier.

Career

He held the following offices:[1]

• Clerk of the Green Cloth[2]
• Second Clerk Controller of Charles II's Household[3]
• One of the Commissioners for executing the office of Master of the Horse, 1679[4]
• MP for Yarmouth 1673
• MP for Bishop's Castle, Shropshire 1680–1.

He had a seat at King's Clere in Hampshire but resided principally at Sutton in Surrey where he owned the manor of Coulsdon.[5]

Marriage and issue

He married c. 1662, Anna Margaretta Long, daughter of Sir James Long, 2nd Baronet. They had two daughters:

• Dorothy, married Sir William Brownlow, 4th Baronet of Humby
• Anna, married 1) (div 1698) Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, 2) c. 1700 Colonel Henry Brett.[6]

Sir Richard Mason was one of those present at the death of Charles II. His wife, Lady Anna Mason wrote a detailed account of the King's last illness and subsequent death, in a letter to her mother Lady Dorothy Long at Draycot House in Wiltshire. This letter came to light in 1850 when it was found among papers at Draycot House, and was published soon afterwards by Charles Dickens in his weekly magazine Household Words.[7]

Sir Richard Mason died 8 March 1685 and is buried at the parish church at Sutton. His widow and daughter Dorothy inherited the manor of Coulsdon and in 1688 sold the estate to Sir Edward des Bouverie.[8] Lady Mason died in July 1717.

References

1. "MASON, Sir Richard (C.1619-85), of Bishop's Castle, Salop and Worcester Park, Surr. | History of Parliament Online".
2. Archaeologia Cambrensis - Cambrian Archaeological Association - W Pickering 1879
3. Court Satires of the Restoration - John Harold Wilson 1976
4. Collins's Peerage of England - Egerton Brydges 1812
5. "Parishes: Coulsdon Pages 199-205 A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4". British History Online. Victoria County History, 1912. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
6. "Brett [née Mason], Anne [other married name Anne Gerard, countess of Macclesfield] (1667/8–1753), courtier | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/70843. Retrieved 3 March 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
7. Mason, Lady Anne. "Account of the Death of Charles II by a Wife of a Person about the Court at Whitehall". Household Words, London. 1954, Vol 9, pp 277-8.
8. "Parishes: Coulsdon Pages 199-205 A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4". British History Online. Victoria County History, 1912. Retrieved 28 December 2022.