The name, albeit fairly commonplace, can be traced back in Dedham to at least the late seventeenth century (and no doubt earlier), when a Thomas Mason, son of John Mason (died by 1685), clothier of Dedham, signed a grant on 16 October 1695. He or his son may have been the Thomas Mason of Dedham who married Sarah Sharpe of Manningtree in 1711 (see marriage bond). 

My 4xgreat grandfather, Thomas Mason, was born circa 1756 at Dedham, most likely the son of Thomas Mason and Miriam Cross, who married at Dedham in 1755 (according to Boyd’s Marriage Indexes). He may also have been the son or grandson of the Thomas Mason of Dedham, who died leaving a will dated 31 October 1761. 

Thomas married Sarah Manning (c.1761–15 March 1839) on 7 December 1779, at Lawford, Essex. She was the daughter of Jacob Manning (1720–1809), farmer. Their first daughter was named Miriam.

He is listed as a farmer at Dedham in The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce, and Manufacture (1791) and the poll books of 1798 and 1810. This was possibly at Hill Farm, where his son James is recorded as paying tithes in 1830. Hill Farm does seem to have been in the family in the 1840s, when a William Manning (possibly Sarah’s nephew) was farming there, according to the 1842 Register of Electors. Also, when Thomas’s daughter Miriam died, the death notice gave her as the daughter of Thomas Mason of Hill House (sic). Hill Farm could well have been the same as Jupes Hill Farm.

In the Dedham churchwardens accounts from 1810 Thomas is listed as paying tithes of one-tenth of the value of his produce to the parish. (Note also amongst these pages the name of Golden Constable [sic], presumably Golding Constable, the father of the painter John [see below], who owned Dedham Mill.) In 1812 and 1813 Thomas’s produce was valued at £129 per annum, the second highest in Dedham, so his land must have been extensive. By 1815 he was taxed on £121 and was being overtaken by other more wealthy farmers. 

By December of the following year, 1816, when his daughter Sarah married, Thomas had moved to Brightlingsea, Essex, close to the River Colne and his son James was farming and paying tithes in his place at Dedham.

Thomas died on 27 August 1829, at Brightlingsea (Sarah, his wife, followed ten years later). He left a long will in which he mentions his children and his various freehold and copyhold property. His son Thomas junior, by now of Ardleigh (later of Jupes Hill, Dedham), was executor. A codicil to the will, dated 1837, mentions George Witheat, wine merchant of Dedham, who claims he was well acquainted with Thomas. Indeed he would have been: George’s daughter Phoebe married Thomas’s son James.