Mason, William, 1725-1797

found: OCLC data base, 2/15/91(hdg.: Mason, William, 1725-1797; usage: William Mason; W. Mason; Mr. Mason; Sig. Mason; M. Masson; W.M.; Malcolm Macgreggor; Malcolm M'Greggor, Esq.; Author of Elfrida; Author of The heroic epistle to Sir William Chambers)

found: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online, viewed 27 July 2017(Mason, William; 1725-1797; poet and garden designer; born on 12 February 1725 at Kingston upon Hull; Mason was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge on 1 July 1742; he graduated BA in 1746, MA in 1749 at Pembroke College, and was a fellow of the latter college from 1749 to 1759; Mason was ordained deacon on 17 November 1754 in St Margaret's, Westminster, made a priest a week later, and was then presented on 27 November 1754 to the living of Aston, West Riding of Yorkshire, where he remained rector for forty-three years; he was made a royal chaplain in 1757, relinquishing the post in 1772; his most significant post was as precentor of York Minster, held for thirty-five years from 1762; Mason did not have a unified identity, the highly respected author of odes, etc. was at the same time the subversive satirist Malcolm MacGreggor; Mason frequented the estates of his friends and designed several flower gardens for them; Mason died on 5 April 1797 at his rectory in Aston)