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.

Characteristic Markings

The books given to Brasenose were not generally inscribed by Mason but marked with one of three 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).