John M. Mason

John Mitchell Mason (March 19, 1770 - December 26, 1829) was an American preacher and theologian who was Provost of Columbia College in the early 1810s, and briefly President of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the early 1820s.

Born in New York City, Mason was the son of a prominent clergyman. He graduated from Columbia College in May 1789, and in 1791 traveled to his father's home country of Scotland to study theology at the University of Edinburgh.

Towards the end of 1792, his studies in Edinburgh were interrupted by news of the death of his father, prompting Mason to return to the United States and accept the pastoral charge of the church with which his father was connected, in New York. He was licensed to preach in November, 1792; and, after preaching there for several months, was installed in April, 1793, as their pastor. On May 13, 1793, he married Ann Lefferts, with whom he had five sons and two daughters.

Mason continued as pastor of his father's former church for seventeen years, where he developed a reputation as an excellent orator. In 1804, he received a Doctor of Divinity, and from 1806 to 1810, he published Christian Magazine. In 1810, he decided to begin a new congregation, directing the construction of a new church in Murray Street. While the new church was being built, his congregation held their meetings for public worship in the Presbyterian Church in Cedar Street. This caused some discord, as the Presbyterian Church used an unauthorized version of the Psalms. At the meeting of Synod in Philadelphia in the spring of 1811, Mason's alleged delinquency in associating with these Presbyterians led to a formal investigation. Although this was resolved in a conciliatory manner, it was widely discussed within the church, prompting Mason to write a work on Catholic Communion, which appeared about four years after, and which was well received.

In the summer of 1811, Mason accepted the office of Provost of Columbia College, and in the summer of 1812, the Murray Street Church was ready for occupancy. Mason took up the strenuous duties of running the congregation while continuing to work and teach at the college. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814. In 1816, his health declined to the point that he found it necessary to resign the office he had assumed in connection with the College, and he resolved to try the effect of a voyage to Europe. Mason then traveled extensively in France, Italy, and Switzerland, and then to England, where he arrived in time to attend the anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, where he delivered a well-received address.

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