MASON, Richard Sharp, clergyman, born in Barbadoes, Wisconsin, 29 December, 1795; died in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1875. He was brought to this country by his parents when quite young, educated in Philadelphia, and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1812. He was made deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church by Bishop White in 1817, and became rector of Christ church, New Berne, North Carolina, in 1818. In 1820 he was ordained priest, still retaining his charge, and remaining there for ten years. In 1829 he was elected president of Geneva (now Hobart) college, New York, having the previous year become rector of St. Matthew's at that place. In 1835 he was called to be the head of a similar educational institution at Newark, Delaware In 1840 he returned to North Carolina, having been called to the rectorship of Christ church, Raleigh, where he labored for thirty-five years until his death. When Dr. Mason first went to New Berne the Episcopal church had but a slight footing in the diocese, and his work was largely missionary in its character. By his earnest and self-denying efforts he greatly increased the strength of his denomination. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1829. He is the author of "A Letter to the Bishop of North Carolina on the Subject of his Late Pastoral" (New York, 1850), and "The Baptism of Infants defended from the Objections of Antipaedo Baptists," edited by his son (1874).