was James Fitch, a learned divine, who came from England and settled in Saybrook, but removed to Lebanon, where he died.  A Latin epitaph, in the ancient burying-ground of that town, records his merits.  One of his descendants held a large tract of land in the parish of Goshen, in the town of Lebanon, by grant from the Indians; one half of which, near a century afterwards, was bequeathed to his daughter, Elizabeth Fitch, the mother of Mr. Mason.  To this property Mr. Mason’s father removed soon after his marriage, and there he died, in 1813.  The title of this land was obtained from Uncas, an Indian sachem in that neighborhood, by the great-grandfather of Mr. Mason’s mother, and has never been alienated from the family.  It is now owned by Mr. Mason’s nephew, Jeremiah Mason, the son of his eldest brother James.  The family has been distinguished for longevity; the average ages of Mr. Mason’s six immediate ancestors having exceeded eighty-three years each.  Mr. Mason was the sixth of nine children, all of whom are now dead.

Mr. Mason’s father was a man of intelligence and activity, of considerable opulence, and highly esteemed by the community.  At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, being a zealous Whig, he raised and commanded a company of minute-men, as they were called, and marched to the siege of Boston.  Here he rendered important service, being stationed at Dorchester Heights, and engaged in fortifying that position.  In the autumn of that year, he was promoted to a colonelcy, and joined the army with his regiment, in the neighborhood of New York.  At the end of the campaign, he returned home out of health, but retained the command of his regiment, which he rallied and brought out with celerity and spirit when General Arnold assaulted and burned New London.  He became attached to military life, and regretted that he had not at an early day entered the Continental service.  Colonel Mason was a good man, affectionate to his family, kind and obliging to his neighbors, and faithful in the observance of all moral and religious duties.

Mr. Mason’s mother was distinguished for a good understanding, much discretion, the purity of her heart and affections, and the exemplary kindness and benevolence of her life.  It was her great anxiety to give all her children the best education, within the means of the family, which the state of the country would allow; and she was particularly desirous that Jeremiah should be sent to college.  “In my recollection of my mother,” says Mr. Mason, “she was the personification of love, kindness, and benevolence.”

Destined for an education and for professional life, Mr. Mason was sent to Yale College, at sixteen years of age; his preparatory studies having been pursued under “Master Tisdale,” who had then been forty years at the head of a school in Lebanon, which had become distinguished, and among the scholars of which were the Wheelocks, afterwards Presidents of Dartmouth College.  He was graduated in 1784, and