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Charles Mason (c. 1698 – 18 December 1770) was an academic and a clergyman of the Church of England.
Charles Mason | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1698 |
| Died | 18 December 1770 (aged 71–72) |
| Nationality | English |
| Alma mater | DD, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1749 |
| Occupation(s) | Academic and clergyman |
| Known for | Woodwardian Professor (1734-62) |
He was schooled at Wem, Shropshire[1] and became a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1725.[2]
At Trinity he gained a BA in 1723, an MA in 1726, was incorporated at Oxford in 1731 and went on to be awarded a BD from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1736 and a DD, in 1749.[1]
He was ordained as a Deacon in 1733, became Vicar of Barrington, Cambridgeshire in 1742 and was later Rector of Orwell, Cambridgeshire (1762–1771).[1]
Mason was appointed as the Woodwardian Professor of Geology in 1734, a position he held until 1762,[2] and he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1742.[1]
It was Mason who made the extraordinary discovery, in the library of Trinity College, of a packet of thirty loose and tattered folio leaves, almost covered with the handwriting of Milton.[3] It is thought that Mason recognised the nature of this material around 1735 and the loose-leaf sheets were bound for the first time in 1736. This forms what is now known as Milton's poetical notebook, or the Trinity Manuscript, which has been described as “the chief treasure of Trinity Library”.[3]
During his life, Mason compiled a complete map of Cambridgeshire which was later published in 1806, long after his death.[4]
The inscription on his tomb at St Andrew's Church, Orwell, Cambridgeshire, reads Senior Fellow of Trinity College and Woodwardian Profeſſor of Foſſils, F.R.S. and Rector of Orwell. Departed this life on December 18th 1770, in the 72nd year of his Age;[5] on that basis his date of birth must have been in 1698 (or in the final few weeks of 1697) rather than the more frequently quoted 1699.
- Charles Mason (1734) Oratio de physiologiæ explicandæ munere, ex celeberrimi Woodwardi Testamento instituto.[6]
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