John Mason, born circa 1600-01 in England, was a Puritan who served as an officer under Sir Thomas Fairfax in the Netherlands against Spain before making the 63 day passage to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with Reverend Wareham's party in 1630. As one of the few experienced military men there, he was elected captain at Dorchester and eventually helped found Windsor, CT, where the CT River Indians had invited settlement. When the first Pequot war began in New England in 1636 between Indians and the English, in a colony with only a few hundred English inhabitants, Mason commanded a contingent of 90 soldiers and, with the principal aid of Uncas and the Mohegans, defeated the powerful Pequot Nation in 1637. Disobeying orders, he made strategic decisions of his own that helped gain victory over a more numerous enemy. He lost 2 dead and 20 wounded, while the Pequots lost hundreds; many warriors and noncombatants alike perished when one of their forts was burned by Mason, after which the Pequots retreated from Connecticut. Mason said of Uncas, "He was a great friend and did great service." Major Mason was the chief military officer in the colony for 35 years, served as magistrate and major at Windsor for 8 years, and after the death of his first wife married his second wife, Anne Peck, with whom he had altogether 8 children. His son John Jr. was mortally wounded in King Philip's war in 1675. Mason was then placed in charge of a fort in Saybrook for the next 12 years. In 1660, with his son-in-law, the Rev. James Fitch, he founded Norwich. During the first eight years, he was made deputy governor, and for two years was acting governor while Gov. Winthrop was in England seeking Connecticut's charter from King Charles. He died January 30, 1672.