To George Washington from George Mason, 29 July 1752
From George Mason
Dogues N⟨e⟩ck Ju⟨ly 29, 1752⟩
Sir
I came Home ⟨mutilated⟩ Yesterday, when I re⟨mutilated⟩ Me with the time of Yr Brother ⟨mutilated⟩ neral,1 & desiring my Attendance. I am very sorry it did not come to ⟨mutilated⟩ Hands sooner; had I known it in ⟨mutilated⟩ I wou’d by no means have refused the last peice of Respect to the Memory of a Gentleman, for whom, when alive, I had a sincere Regard.
I most heartily condole You on the Loss of so worthy a Brother & Friend & am Sir Yr most hble Sert
George Mas⟨on⟩
ALS, DLC:GW. This letter is unaddressed but presumably was written to GW. It has been dated from the docket.
George Mason (1725–1792), son of George Mason (1690–1735) and Ann Thomson Mason, lived at Dogue’s Neck (sometimes called Mason’s Neck) in Fairfax County not far from Mount Vernon. Mason later built Gunston Hall on this property. A friend and neighbor of the Washingtons, Mason had been closely associated with Lawrence Washington in the Ohio Company. At this time his attention centered largely on the management of his plantation, service as a vestryman in Truro Parish, and his varied business affairs, but he was later to be closely involved with GW in the growing opposition in Virginia to British colonial policies.
1. Lawrence Washington found that the trip to Barbados with his brother (see , 1:24–117) had not produced the expected improvement in his health although he remained there some 3 months after GW’s departure. As Lawrence wrote his father-in-law Col. William Fairfax from the island, “this climate has not afforded the relief I expected from it, so that I have almost determined to try the Bermudas on my return, and, if it does not do, the dry air of Frederick” (, 2:422). A sojourn in Bermuda proved no more beneficial, and, probably in early June 1752, he returned to Virginia. On 20 June he signed his will. He died at Mount Vernon on 26 July and was buried on the estate.