Branches of: The Waugh Family Tree
THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE ARE CHILDREN OF OUR DIRECT ANCESTORS
Elizabeth Waugh is the daughter of The Rev. John William Waugh and Elizabeth. The daughter would marry Colonel George Mason II, (1660-1716). The Mason's would have a daughter Catherine, during the birth of Catherine, Elizabeth would die.
Catherine Mason(1707-1750) and John Mercer would marry in 1725. Catherine and John would have a son, Mason. He would die within his first month of life.
Here are some interesting facts about Catherine and John Mercer.
They are as follows:
George Mason III left instructions in his will that
his brother-in-law, John Mercer, should raise his son, George Mason IV, if
he should die. (Mercer was Mason's (III) brother-in-law because Mason's
half-sister, Catherine, was married to Mercer) When George Mason IV was 10
years old, his father drowned in the Potomac River.
GM IV and his mother
went to live with John Mercer and his wife, Catherine Mason Mercer (daughter
of George Mason II and Elizabeth Waugh).
Mason IV, lacking any other
schooling, was said to have gained all of his more formally acquired
knowledge from spending many hours in John Mercer's library.
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia was named for Mason (IV) because of Mason's historic contributions to
Virginia, U.S., and world history.
The school was founded in the 1950s as a
branch campus of the University of Virginia. In the 1970s it spun off and
became an independent part of the Virginia state college system.
Mason (IV) wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Thomas Jefferson, in
writing the US Declaration of Independence, borrowed heavily from Mason's
document.
After the French Revolution, drafters of the Declaration of the
Rights of Man were also heavily influenced by Mason's Declaration.
From Mason's Declaration of Rights:
That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain
inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they
cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the
enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing
property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
Jefferson used a very similar phrase in the Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Mason wrote the first Virginia Constitution and served on the Federal
Commission that drafted the US Constitution, but refused to sign that
document because initially it did not include a guarantee of individual
rights.
Mason's protest contributed to the adoption of Amendments 1-10 of
the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights. A long time friend of George
Washington, Mason's protest against the Constitution he helped draft drove a
wedge between the two Virginians that they never succeeded in closing.
THIS SITE IS UNDER MAJOR CONSTRUCTION::
All the above information was researched and contributed by:
Jeffrey W. Hayes, 9G Grandchild of The Rev. John William Waugh.
Go back to
the Waugh Family Tree Agenda.
Email: genehayes@adelphia.net
