Mason, John Y. (John Young), 1799-1859

U.S. minister to France.

John Young Mason, from Greensville County, Va., graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1816. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia, 1831-1837; served as secretary of the Navy, 1844-1845 and 1846-1849; was attorney general of the United States, March 1845-September 1846; and served as United States minister plenipotentiary to France, 1854-1859.

John Young Mason, born in Hicksford, Va., graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1816 and served as United States Secretary of the Navy in 1844-1845 and 1846-1849. He was also a federal judge, a U.S. Congressman, and a land owner.

John Mason Jr. was the eldest child of John and Anna Murray Mason, born February 1796. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1818 and served under J.R. Poinsett as secretary to the American Legation to Mexico. On April 5, 1827 he married Catharine Macomb, daughter of Alexander and Catherine Macomb, and they had ten children. John Mason Jr. died in 1859. (John Mason Papers ; Mason Geneal. Chart ; Macomb. Macomb Fam. Rec. 37.) (blue index cards)

Diplomat, U.S. attorney general, U.S. secretary of the navy, U.S. representative, and public official of Virginia.

John Young Mason, from Greensville County, Va., graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1816. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia, 1831-1837; served as secretary of the Navy, 1844-1845 and 1846-1849; was attorney general of the United States, March 1845-September 1846; and served as U.S. minister plenipotentiary to France, 1854-1859.

John Young Mason was born near Hicksford (now Emporia), Greensville County, Va., on 18 April 1799. He was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1816; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1819 and commenced practice in Hicksford, Va.; member of the Virginia House of Delegates 1823-1827; served in the State Senate 1827-1831; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-second, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth Congresses and served from 4 March 1831, until his resignation on 11 January 1837; chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs (Twenty-fourth Congress); appointed United States district judge for the eastern district of Virginia in 1837; delegate to the State constitutional conventions of 1829 and 1850; appointed Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President John Tyler and served from March 14, 1844, to March 10, 1845, and again in the Cabinet of President James K. Polk from September 9, 1846, to March 7, 1849; Attorney General of the United States from 11 March 1845 to 9 September 1846; resumed the practice of law in Richmond, Va., 1849-1854; appointed United States Minister Plenipotentiary to France on 22 January 1854, and served until his death, in Paris, France, on 3 October 1859. His remains were conveyed to the United States and interred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

John Young Mason (April 18, 1799 - October 3, 1859) was an American politician, diplomat, and United States federal judge. He served as Secretary of the Navy, 1844-1845 and 1846-1849.

John Y. Mason (1799-1859) was a lawyer, Virginia legislator, and diplomat. He served as a representative from Southampton County to the Virginia House of Delegates, 1824-26, and as a state senator, 1826-31 before election to federal office.

William H. Brodnax (1786-1834) practiced law in Greensville then Dinwiddie and Brunswick counties and the city of Petersburg. In 1824 the Virginia legislature appointed him a brigadier-general of the militia. He served as a representative to the House of Delegates from Greensville in 1818-19 and from Dinwiddie in 1830-33. Brunswick County sent him to the 1829/30 Constitutional convention.