John Mason (diplomat) - Final Years

Final Years

During his final years he divided his time between his principal estate at Hartley Wintney and the house of his son-in-law Francis Spelman at Gunnersbury, Middlesex. The ambiguity surrounding Mason's religious views was shared by many of his colleagues, and continued to the end of his life: in 1564, the Bishop of Winchester reported that he was favourable to true religion, while at his death the Spanish ambassador claimed he was a Catholic. There is no evidence of Catholicism in his will, in which he asked forgiveness for his sins from God ‘who hathe saved us not according unto workes of Justice that we have doon but according unto his Mercie’.

Among its many beneficiaries were his half-brother Thomas Wikes, or Wykes, of Drayton, near Abingdon, Thomas's children, and the children of another half-brother, John Wikes. His overseers were named as Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, the master of the rolls, Sir William Cordell, the archdeacon of Surrey, John Watson, and Robert Creswell. He died on 20 or 21 April 1566 and was buried in the north choir aisle of St Paul's Cathedral in London, where his widow and his heir, his nephew Anthony Wyckes (later Mason), erected a monument; his son Thomas had predeceased him, although he was survived by several stepdaughters.

The monument proclaimed that Mason had faithfully served four Tudor monarchs as ambassador and councillor, successfully weathering a succession of religious and political storms. His political longevity testified to his discretion in keeping his own counsel, and his adroitness in rendering himself indispensable to the crown. His diplomatic skill and personal affability were noticed by his contemporaries. On one occasion, during a dinner-table debate the scholar Roger Ascham observed how Mason, ‘after his maner, was verie merie with both parties, pleasantlie playing both’. Mason himself claimed that his motto was ‘do and say nothing’. Yet he had consistently promoted scholarship, and his scholarly interests were praised by John Leland in his Encomia. He bequeathed at least a dozen volumes to the library of All Souls.

John Mason School, a secondary school in Abingdon, is named after him.