Betsey Clapham Mason - Chestnut Hill, Huntley, and Colross

The Colross Estate in 1916 before it was deconstructed and relocated to New Jersey.

            Elizabeth “Betsey” Clapham Mason was the wife of lawyer and judge Thomson Francis Mason, a grandson of George Mason IV who died in 1838 before the outbreak of the Civil War. Being a member of the gentry, Thomson Francis Mason owned numerous amounts of property, most famously the Colross Estate in Alexandria which was the main residence of the family, and the Huntley House which was the family’s summer home. After Thomson Francis Mason’s death, his will was probated on February 4^th, 1839 with his wife as executor, and Betsey inherited both the Colross Estate and the Huntley House.[1] This was not the only property that Betsey would acquire however as she also purchased Chestnut Hill, a Revolutionary War-era farm, from her uncle George Price on October 16, 1839, after the death of her husband.[2]

            Betsey Mason’s Chestnut Hill property located in Loudoun County had a very interesting fate in regards to the Civil War. When the 1860 Census for Loudoun County was conducted, Betsey was listed as living at Chestnut Hill along with one of her sons, John Francis Mason, with Betsey’s estate valued at $127,200, not accounting for inflation proving her wealth as a member of the gentry.[3] During the war, however, by a stroke of luck, Chestnut Hill did not suffer the same fate as much of the property of the gentry did. According to an interview, Chestnut Hill was saved the fate of being incinerated during the Civil War due to the amount of respect the Union officer in the area had for the Mason family name along with the belief that an original copy of the Virginia Declaration of Rights may have been hidden inside.[4] Thanks to her connection with the Mason family, Betsey would keep Chestnut Hill until she died in 1873, where the property was then willed to her son, John Mason.[5]

            The Mason summer home of Huntley located in modern-day Hybla Valley of Fairfax County would not remain in the hands of the Mason family during the Civil War in comparison to Chestnut Hill. After Huntley was willed to Betsey, she would deed the Huntley House in November of 1859 to her two sons, Arthur Pendleton Mason and John Francis Mason, along with eighty-five slaves in December of the same year in which six were named as living at the Huntley House.[6] However, exactly one month later the two sons would become indebted for an unknown reason to Benjamin King, a friend of the family, to the amount of $13,000, and the house was put up as security.[7] Unable to pay their debts, on July 12^th, 1862, Huntley was put up for auction and was purchased by King who would own the property until the end of the Civil War.[8] It is important to note that Arthur Mason likely had no say in regards to the Huntley house as he was serving as an officer for the Confederacy during the entirety of the war and the fate of the slaves is unknown. Also, a Union sympathizer, George W. Johnson, was staying at the property and allowed Union troops from Michigan to camp at the residence.[9]

            Unlike Huntley and much like Chestnut Hill during the Civil War, the main family home of Colross would remain under the ownership of the Mason family. The 1850 Census lists Betsey living at Colross living there with her children with the estate valued at $56,000 along with several slaves who managed the estate once again demonstrating the wealth of the gentry.[10] The war may have not entirely kind to Betsey though, as a newspaper article from 1864 reported that Betsey Mason had fled Alexandria during the war and relocated herself to Point of Rocks, Maryland.[11] Also, during the war, Colross was being rented out to an unknown Union officer which is not surprising considering the Union seized a considerable amount of property in Alexandria during the occupation.[12] At the end of the Civil War, Betsey returned to Colross with the 1870 Census listing her as living there, this time with her occupation as “keeping house”, a real estate value of $20,000 indicating the estate may have suffered damage, and both her grandchildren Daniel and Florence Rhett living there.[13] The Colross estate would be willed to one of her children after her death and would remain in the Mason family until the 1880s where eventually in 1929 it was deconstructed and rebuilt brick by brick in Princeton, New Jersey.[14] Although much of Betsey's wealth and property had been diminished, her wealth in 1870 after the war was still enough for her to be considered upper class or gentry.