Major John Mason (1600–1672)

American soldier; born in England about 1600; served under Sir Thomas Fairfax in the Netherlands. Removing to America, he was one of the first settlers of Dorchester, MA, and in 1635 aided in founding the town of Windsor, CT. In 1637 he commanded a successful expedition against the Pequod Indians, in which with a handful of whites he annihilated a powerful tribe, and secured a general peace with the Indians which remained unbroken for forty years. Mason then settled in Saybrook, and later in Norwich, and was major of the colonial forces more than thirty years. From 1642 to 1668 he was a magistrate, and from 1660 to 1670 the deputy-governor of Connecticut. At the request of the General Court he published an account of the Pequod War. He died at Norwich, CT, in 1672.