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MASON volunteered in the Mexican war, and as a cap- tain of the mounted rifles was mortally wound- ed at Cerro Gordo. V. Richard B., grandson of George Mason, an officer of the United States army, died at Jefferson barracks, Mo., in 1850. He served in the Mexican war as colonel of dragoons, and was brevetted brigadier general in 1848 for "meritorious and distinguished" services. He was the first civil and military governor of California. VI. James Murray, also a grandson of George Mason, born on An- alostan island, opposite Washington, Nov. 3, 1798, died near Alexandria, Va., April 28, 1871. He studied law, and in 1820 commenced practice in Winchester, Va. In 1826 he was elected to the Virginia house of delegates, and was twice reflected. In 1837 he was chosen a member of the lower house of congress. He declined a reelection and returned to the prac- tice of his profession. In 1847 he was appoint- ed to the United States senate to fill a vacancy, and in 1849 and again in 1855 was reflected. He took a prominent part in the senate, was for several years chairman of the committee on foreign relations, and drafted the fugitive slave law of 1850. He early took part in the seces- sion movement, and in July, 1861, was expelled from the senate. He was appointed confeder- ate commissioner to England and France, and on Nov. 8, 1861, with his colleague John Sli- dell, was captured in the Bahama channel on board the British mail steamer Trent, by Capt. Wilkes. He was confined in Fort Warren, Boston harbor, till Jan. 2, 1862, when he was given up to the British government. During the remainder of the war he resided mainly in Paris, as representative of the confederacy. After its close he went to Canada, where he remained three years, and then returned to Virginia. VII. Stevens Thomson, grandson of Stevens Thomson Mason, already mentioned, born in London co., Va., in 1811, died in New York in January, 1843. His father, John T. Mason, removed to Kentucky, where the son was educated. In 1831 he was appointed sec- retary of the territory of Michigan, and on the translation of Gov. Cass to the war depart- ment at Washington, he became the acting governor. He held this office during the Ohio and Michigan boundary controversy, which ex- cited intense interest and bitter feeling ; thou- sands of troops were marched to the line with the prospect of a sanguinary conflict. When Michigan organized itself as a state in 1835, he was unanimously elected her first governor, and was reflected for a second term. On retiring from office in 1839, he withdrew from political life, and removed to New York, where he prac- tised law. VIII. John Y., descended more re- motely from the same stock as the above, born in Greensville, Va., April 18, 1799, died in Paris, Oct. 4, 1859. He graduated at the university of North Carolina, studied law, was for ten years a delegate in the Virginia general assem- bly, and filled several other offices in the state. He was a representative in congress from 1831 to 1837, when he was appointed judge of the United States court for Virginia. He was sec- retary of the navy under President Tyler, and successively attorney general and secretary of the navy under President Polk. By President Pierce he was appointed minister to France, where he continued until his death. MASON, Francis, an American missionary, born in York, England, April 2, 1799, died in Kan- goon, Burmah, March 3, 1874. His father was a shoemaker, but seems to have been also a Baptist preacher. Young Mason was with- drawn from the parish school to work at his father's trade. While engaged in this employ- ment at Hull, whither his father had removed, he obtained a work on geography containing also an outline of astronomy, and was thus led to attend an evening school, where he ac- quired a knowledge of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. In 1818 he came to the United States, went at once to the west, and worked as a shoemaker in various places. He went to Boston in 1824, and worked at his trade in Randolph and in Canton, Mass. At Canton he married, united with the Baptist church, and studied languages with his minister. He* entered Newton theological institution in 1827, and in 1830 was sent by the American Baptist missionary union to Burmah. He labored among the Karens, a wild tribe, of whom thousands have since been converted, transla- ting the Bible into two dialects of their lan- guage, conducting a seminary for the educa- tion of preachers and teachers, and preparing books. for their use. In the intervals of his regular labors he gathered specimens of plants, made numerous notes, and published in 1852 a work on the natural productions of Burmah, begun with a view to translating the names of natural objects into the vernacular, which Dr. Hooker pronounced "the most valuable addi- tion to the history of the fauna and flora of British Burmah, of any man of modern times." A second edition was published under the ti- tle, "Burmah: its People and Natural Pro- ductions" (8vo, Eangoon, 1860). He was on his way to Calcutta to superintend a revised edition, when he was arrested by his last sick- ness. He had also published a grammar, chres- tomathy, and vocabulary of the Pali language, besides translations from the Burman, Pali, and Sanskrit, and a "Life of Ko-Thah-Byu," republished in Boston as "The Karen Apos- tle;" a "Memoir of Mrs. Helen M. Mason" (New York, 1847); a "Memoir of San Quala" (Boston, 1850); and an autobiography, "The Story of a Working Man's Life, with Sketches of Travel" (New York, 1870). He received the degree of D. D. from Brown university. MASON, Jeremiah, an American lawyer, born in Lebanon, Conn., April 27, 1768, died in Boston, Oct. 14, 1848. His father, Col. Jere- miah Mason, was an officer in the revolutionary army, and commanded a company of minute- men at the siege of Boston. He graduated at Yale college in 1788, was admitted to the