Indenture Contract

In this indenture contract, dated August 4, 1755, the English carpenter and joiner William Buckland promises four years of service to Thomson Mason "in the Plantation of Virginia beyond the Seas." Mason hired Buckland on behalf of his brother, George Mason, who sought a skilled craftsman to help him design the interior woodwork in Gunston Hall, his plantation home in Fairfax County. The contract promised the twenty-two-year-old Buckland paid passage to Virginia, twenty pounds sterling per year, and room and board in exchange for four years of service, after which he would gain his freedom.