Early Life
William Temple Thomson Mason was born on July 24, 1782 at Raspberry Plain. "Temple", as he was known by his family, was Thomson Mason's third child and youngest son with his second wife Elizabeth Westwood Wallace. He was named after his father’s cousin, Sir William Temple, in England. While still in his infancy, Temple's father died on February 26, 1785 and he was left in the care of his mother and older half-brothers.
At the age of 19, Temple was sent to the College of William and Mary to obtain a gentleman’s education. He spent two years at the college, graduating in 1803. Having reached the age of 21, Temple received a parcel of land in northern Loudoun County near Leesburg not far from Raspberry Plain, the house in which he grew up. According to Thomson Mason’s last will and testament, recorded in Stafford County on September 26, 1784, he bequeathed to Temple, his brother Westwood Thomson Mason and their half-brother, Abram Barnes Thomson Mason, several hundred acres of land along the Potomac River. On November 29, 1803, at the Loudoun County Courthouse in Leesburg, the three brothers filed a document in which they partitioned the land, with Temple receiving 757 acres (3.06 km2).
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