George Mason papers, 1775-1789

Location of collection:

Library of Virginia

The Library of Virginia

800 East Broad Street

Richmond, VA 23219

Contact for questions and access:

POC: Archives Reference Services

Email: archdesk@lva.virginia.gov

Phone: (804) 692-3888

Web: www.lva.virginia.gov

Summary

Extent:

234 leaves

Language:

English

Background

Scope and content:

Papers, 1775-1789, of George Mason (1725-1792) consisting of correspondence, drafts of amendments, bills, declarations, and petitions. Papers concern the work of Mason during the Virginia Conventions and his time in the Virginia House of Delegates. Of interest is a copy, by Mason, of the first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a draft bill for the establishment of a Land Office, and material related to the Mount Vernon Convention, which among other things established navigation rights of shared waterways between Maryland and Virginia.

Biographical / historical:

George Mason of "Gunston Hall" in Fairfax County, Virginia, was born 11 December 1725. Mason represented Fairfax County in the House of Burgesses from 1758 to 1761; in the 3rd, 4th and 5th Virginia Conventions from 1775-1776; and in the House of Delegates from 1776 to 1781 and 1786 to 1788. In the 5th Virginia Convention, Mason was appointed to the committee which wrote Virginia's first state constitution. Mason authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which has appeared in every subsequent state constitution. Mason attended the federal Constitutional Convention in 1787, but did not sign the document because it did not have a bill of rights at the time. This lack of a bill of rights also led to his opposition to the Constitution during the Virginia ratification convention in 1788. When the Bill of Rights was finally added to the federal Constitution, it was based on his Declaration of Rights. George Mason died at Gunston Hall, in Fairfax County, 7 October 1792.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged chronologically.