Before 1724, the Pohick Church was established as the first permanent church of northern Virginia. During the early years of the church, Augustine Washington and Mary Ball Washington, the parents of George Washington, attended church services.
In 1774, the Pohick Church was relocated to a new location, in a brick building that currently stands in Lorton, Virginia.
In present day, along the church grounds, lie the remains of veterans of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. In addition, John West, a signer of the Fairfax Resolves, is buried on the church grounds.
Inside of the main church building is a flag that is dedicated to the 1774 Pohick Church, George Mason and George Washington.
The Huntley Historic Site contains the former home of Thomson Francis Mason, a grandson of George Mason IV, and various other buildings associated with the former plantation. On December 21st, 1838, Thomson Francis Mason passed away and was buried at Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery in Alexandria City, Virginia.
After Thomas Francis Mason’s death, his widowed wife Elizabeth “Betsy” C. wife carried on an effort to preserve President George Washington’s home Mount Vernon.
On December 27, 2020, author Philip Andrew Hamilton and his partner Ruth Olga Sherman visited Gunston Hall, the home of the author’s relative George Mason IV. Founding Father George Mason IV had written the Virginia Declaration of Rights in Williamsburg, Virginia, which the Bill of Rights was based off of, and voted against the adoption of the United States Constitution, because it did not consist a Bill of Rights.
Wedding portait of Anna Eilbeck Mason at Gunston Hall.
George Mason IV, had twelve children with his first wife Anna Eilbeck Mason. Philip Andrew Hamilton is related to George Mason IV’s son William Mason, whom served in the Fairfax Militia that his father formed and led.
George Mason IV, Anna Eilbeck Mason, and other members of the Mason family are buried within a brick wall, inside a wooded area, walking distance from Gunston Hall.
Author’s Note:
The author Philip Andrew Hamilton and his identical twin brother Jeffrey Patrick Hamilton were both born on the year that the Bicentiennial of the United States Constitution was being celebrated. However, that year many with a critical eye of our nation’s history, such as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall did not believe it was appropriate to celebrate the Constitution since it took so long for all Americans to obtain voting rights.
Philip Andrew Hamilton, along with five of his siblings, went to George Mason University; a former University of Virginia institution named after George Mason IV. While at the University, Philip Andrew Hamilton studied Constitutional Legal Issues, Contract Law, Family Law, Business Law, and obtained a Paralegal Certification.
In addition to adding the Bill of Rights, George Mason IV particularly supported adding Article V of the United States Constitution which allows for a, “Convention of States”:
“The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate”.
George Mason IV supported this measure to allow a majority of states to exert power over the federal government. Philip Andrew Hamilton supports having state legislators evoke Article V of the United States Constitution for the purpose of having term limits for U.S. Congress members and U.S. Senators, and for other measures.
On September 21, 1774, Colonel George Mason IV formed an independent company of a volunteer militia in response to the crisis with the British Parliament. George Mason IV’s son William Mason enlisted in the Fairfax Militia at the start of the American Revolutionary War.
In 1750, twenty four year old George Mason IV married sixteen year old Ann Eilbeck of Maryland.
George Mason IV commissioned John Hesselius, a popular portraitist for members of the Maryland and Virginia elite, to produce separate wedding portraits of himself and his wife Ann Eilbeck Mason.
On December 11, 1725, founding father George Mason IV was born in a plantation within the Mattawoman Country Estate in Dogue’s Neck, Virginia, within Mason Neck, in Fairfax County. George Mason IV grew up in a plantation that his father George Mason III owned next to the property of Colonel William Eilbeck.
George Mason IV’s father died when he was ten years of age and he inherited the hundreds of acres of land his father owned. William Mason, one of George Mason’s sons, inherited the lands between Chicamuxen Creek and Mattawoman Creek to his son William Mason. In 1780, Mason IV’s eldest son George Mason V, at the age of 23, inherited Mattawoman from his maternal grandmother, Sarah Eilbeck.
Hamilton Historical Records 