We saw a portrait of youngest daughter Alice and her husband James Mason in the hallway. Mason came from a distinguished New England family and both he and his father had successful business careers. His marriage to Alice was his second. He was married previously to a woman in the South, where he lived until he was widowed. Though we are unsure of the precise reasons, Mason was not well liked by John Brown or by Alice’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, Charles Herreshoff. Herreshoff wrote to his future wife, Sally, on his disapproval of Alice and James’s courtship, and he also wrote directly to Alice warning her against Mason. He passionately penned:
If I had a sister I assure you upon everything that is sacred to me, that I would with pleasure see a dagger plunged into her heart than to see her fall a sacrifice to an artful wretch who would stop at nothing to carry his point and in whose heart corrupted by the deep rooted habit of the loosest dissipation there is not room more for a virtuous attachment.
Incidentally, John Brown had problems with Herreshoff, as well; but we’ll learn more about that later in the tour.
Perhaps one reason Alice and Mason’s relationship was frowned upon is because just one day after their nuptials, their first child, little Abby Mason, was born. A clue to Alice’s pregnancy before the marriage is given in one of Abby Brown’s letters:
My belovd sister Alice is at this Date… an unhappy woman owing to ill health as well as that her family [sic] disprove her connection with Mr. Mason to whom she is Engaged. I pray to God in case my sister marrys him that all opposition which is made may n’t create a Parting dissention & that real merit may triumph over every report to his disadvantage. But alas the prospect at present is by no means favorable either as it respects her health – no future settlement.
While pregnancy outside of wedlock was not terribly uncommon in this period, it was a scandal for this woman, the daughter of the richest man in Providence—and it was especially scandalous that she waited so long into the pregnancy to wed! Later, genealogists would address the situation in different ways, some either omitting the wedding date or listing it as a year before Abby Mason’s birth.