Thomas Mason (1580–1619?) was an English clergyman and writer.

Life

On his own account, his father was the heir of Sir John Mason.[1] Mason was admitted at Magdalen College, Oxford, on 29 November 1594, matriculated on 7 January 1595.[1] He may not have graduated; there is possible confusion with another Thomas Mason at Magdalen of the period.[1]

From 1614 to 1619, Mason held the vicarage of Odiham in Hampshire, and probably died around 1620. On 13 April 1621 his widow, Helen Mason, obtained a licence for twenty-one years to reprint his version of Foxe's Book of Martyrs for the benefit of herself and her children.[1][2] Its dedications to George Abbot and Sir Edward Coke probably proved their value in getting this protection, for a book that reflected typical political prejudices of the time after the Gunpowder Plot.[3] About ten years later Helen Mason's attempt to stretch the monopoly to cover a new abridgement of Foxe's work ran into a legal rebuff.[4]

Works

He published:

  • Christ's Victorie over Sathan's Tyrannie, London, 1615; a condensed version of John Foxe's ‘Book of Martyrs,’ with extracts from other works. The running title is ‘The Acts of the Church.’ An enlarged edition appeared in 1747–8 in 2 vols., edited by "Rev. Mr. Bateman, Rector of St. Bartholomew the Great", i.e. Richard Thomas Bateman.[5][6]
  • A Revelation of the Revelation … whereby the Pope is most plainly declared and proved to be Anti-Christ, London, 1619.[1]

Family

Mason's widow Helen married Stephen Bachiler, as his second wife,[7] or third wife, in 1627. Richard Dummer married Thomas and Helen's daughter (Mary) Jane.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Porter, Bertha (1893). "Mason, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 36. pp. 436–437.
  2. ↑ Thomas Rymer, Foedera vol. 17 (1717), p. 294; Google Books.
  3. ↑ John N. King, Foxe's Book of Martyrs and Early Modern Print Culture (2006), p. 144, Google Books.
  4. ↑ King, p. 147, Google Books.
  5. ↑ "Library Record". Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  6. ↑ 'Rectors and their times: Eighteenth century', The records of St. Bartholomew's priory [and] St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield: volume 2 (1921), pp. 332-367. URL. Date accessed: 12 November 2011.
  7. ↑ Dianne Marie Campbell Cobb, Warrington Crane Cobb, Cobb, Hayes, Halm & King ancestors (2000), p. 265.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Porter, Bertha (1893). "Mason, Thomas". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 36. pp. 436–437.

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