Henry Mason 1575/6-1647

Henry MASON 1575/6-1647

Biographical Note

Born in Wigan, Lancashire, son of John Mason, a minor tradesman there. BA Brasenose College, Oxford 1596, MA 1603, BD 1610; chaplain of Corpus Christi College 1602. Vicar of Hillingdon, Middlesex 1611-12, rector of St Matthew, Friday Street, London and chaplain to John King, Bishop of London 1612, rector of St Andrew Undershaft 1613, canon of St Paul’s 1616-37. He retired to Wigan in 1641, supported by an annuity from the Ince family, and died there. Mason developed Arminian, anti-puritan views and published a number of controversial devotional tracts in the 1620s and 30s.

Books

Mason gave ca. 500 books to Brasenose College valued at £1000, substantially 16th- and 17th-century theological works. He also gave books to Wigan Grammar School, and Sion College Library. A copy of Sacrosancti … Concilii Tridentini … canones, 1571, with an inscription that it was given to someone by Mason in 1625, is in Wimpole Hall. Examples: many in Brasenose College, Oxford.

Characteristic Markings

The books given to Brasenose were sometimes inscribed by Mason (and bound volumes usually have a manuscript list of contents) but most were marked with one of four printed gift labels. They are typically in plain calf bindings of their period.

Sources

• Alsop, J. D. '"Mason, Henry (1575/6–1647), Church of England clergyman." ' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Christie, R., The old church and school libraries of Lancashire, 1885, p.192.
• Lee, B. N., Early printed book labels, Pinner, 1976.
• Morgan, P., Oxford libraries outside the Bodleian, 2nd edn, Oxford, 1980.
• Henry Mason donation inscription in Sion College Library (1).
• Henry Mason donation inscription in Sion College Library (2).