William Temple Thomson Mason

William Temple Thomson Mason (July 24, 1782 – 1862) was a prominent Virginia farmer and businessman. Early life William Temple Thomson Mason was born on July 24, 1782, at Raspberry Plain. "Temple", as his family called him, was Thomson Mason's third child and youngest son with his second wife Elizabeth Westwood Wallace. He was named after his father's English cousin, Sir William Temple. While Temple was still an infant, Temple's father died on February 26, 1785, and he was raised by his mother and older half-brothers. At the age of 19, Temple was sent to the College of William and Mary to obtain a gentleman's education. He spent two years at the college, graduating in 1803. Having reached the legal age of 21, Temple received a parcel of land in northern Loudoun County near Leesburg not far from Raspberry Plain, the house in which he grew up. According to Thomson Mason's last will and testament, recorded in Stafford County on September 26, 1784, he had bequeathed to Temple, his brother Westwood Thomson Mason and their half-brother, Abram Barnes Thomson Mason, several hundred acres of land along the Potomac River. On November 29, 1803, at the Loudoun County Courthouse in Leesburg, the three brothers filed a document which partitioned the land, with Temple receiving . Family and career Temple Mason built his home, Temple Hall, in the Federal style between 1810 and 1812. On June 16, 1812, Temple married Ann Eliza Carroll, daughter of Nicholas Maccubbin Carroll and Anne Jennings, in Annapolis, Maryland. Their first child, Temple Anna, was born at Temple Hall in 1813.