Francis Mason, an American missionary, born in York, England, April 2, 1799, died in Ran-goon, Burmah, March 3, 1874. His father was a shoemaker, but seems to have been also a Baptist preacher. Young Mason was withdrawn from the parish school to work at his father's trade. While engaged in this employment at Hull, whither his father had removed, he obtained a work on geography containing also an outline of astronomy, and was thus led to attend an evening school, where he acquired a knowledge of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. In 1818 he came to the United States, went at once to the west, and worked as a shoemaker in various places. He went to Boston in 1824, and worked at his trade in Randolph and in Canton, Mass. At Canton he married, united with the Baptist church, and studied languages with his minister. He entered Newton theological institution in 1827, and in 1830 was sent by the American Bapti-t missionary union to Burmah. He labored among the Karens, a wild tribe, of whom thousands have since been converted, translating the Bible into two dialects of their language, conducting a seminary for the education of preachers and teachers, and preparing books for their use.

In the intervals of his regular labors he gathered specimens of plants made numerous notes, and published in 1852 a work on the natural productions of Burmah, begun with a view to translating the names of natural objects into the vernacular, which Dr. Hooker pronounced "the most valuable addition to the history of the fauna and flora of British Burmah, of any man of modern times." A second edition was published under the title, "Burmah: its People and Natural Productions" (8vo, Rangoon, 1860). He was on his way to Calcutta to superintend a revised edition, when he was arrested by his last sickness. He had also published a grammar, chres-tomathv, and vocabulary of the Pali language, besides translations from the Burman, Pali, and Sanskrit, and a "Life of Ko-Thah-Byu," republished in Boston as "The Karen Apostle;" a "Memoir of Mrs. Helen M. Mason" (New York, 1847); a "Memoir of San Quala" (Boston, 1850); and an autobiography, "The Story of a Working Man's Life, with Sketches of Travel" (New York, 1870). He received the degree of D. D. from Brown university.