During the passage to Tenerife, and eventually the southern latitudes, Mason marks the second anniversary of his wife's death, and the passengers and crew endure shipboard boredom and isolation. Ordered once more to Bencoolen, despite it being currently occupied by French troops, Mason, Dixon, and the Reverend find themselves aboard the newly repaired Seahorse, now escorted by a second frigate as far as the open sea. They draft a letter to the Royal Society with their concerns and receive a swift, threatening reply reiterating their original orders. At a loss to explain how they survived the attack and why the French broke off the assault on the outgunned Seahorse, the pair consider reasons for the assault, including the possibility that they themselves were the target. The Seahorse, with more than thirty casualties and broken masts, limps back to Plymouth for repairs.ĭrinking and paranoia dominate an on-shore discussion between Mason and Dixon. After a pitched battle, during which Mason and Dixon remain below decks and the Reverend acts as a surgeon's apprentice, the French unexpectedly and inexplicably break off the attack. In open sea, off the coast of France, the Seahorse is pursued and attacked by the French warship l'Grand. The Reverend recounts the departure of the Seahorse from Portsmouth and its passage through the English Channel. Talk is made over the threat of possible French naval aggression against the relatively undersized frigate. Over the course of the evening they encounter for the first time the Learned English Dog and Fender-Belly Bodine, a soon-to-be-shipmate on board the Seahorse. After brief discussions of their respective background, the two retire to an ale house for libations before their departure on the frigate HMS Seahorse to observe the Transit of Venus from Sumatra as ordered by the Royal Society. In the naval town of Portsmouth, England in 1761, Mason & Dixon meet for the first time. The novel opens during the winter of 1786 as the Reverend, by request from his nephews, embarks on his first story set in America, which begins with his recollection of the first meeting of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as told to him by the two men.Ī brief episode in which respective letters of introduction are exchanged between Mason and Dixon. The Mason-Dixon Line, originally marking the northern boundary of the southern states of Virginia and Maryland, soon entered the popular consciousness as the dividing line between North and South, and it remains so today.The Reverend Wicks Cherrycoke, at the Philadelphia home of his sister Elizabeth LeSpark, earns his room and board by telling stories to his niece and nephews. The work of Mason, Dixon, Rittenhouse, and Ellicott provides the northern border of West Virginia along Preston, Monongalia, and Wetzel counties, and the eastern border of the Northern Panhandle. In 1786, this stake provided the starting point for dividing the western United States into rectangular townships. Later, they extended this boundary due north from that corner to a stake on the north side of the Ohio River, just west of the mouth of Little Beaver Creek. What they marked was the first scientifically accurate boundary in the colonies, ratified in 1769.Ībout 15 years later, astronomer David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia and surveyor Andrew Ellicott of Maryland extended Mason and Dixon’s line to the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. By 1767, Mason and Dixon had marked about 233 miles when hostile Indians halted their work in present Monongalia County.

After meticulous preliminaries, they began the east-west line separating Pennsylvania from Maryland and (West) Virginia in 1765. In 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon arrived from England at an agreed spot, south of Philadelphia, to begin their work using the latest equipment.

In 1761, the proprietors of the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland, to settle a long dispute, asked the Royal Astronomer at Greenwich to recommend surveyors to fix their common boundary.

Mason dixon line