1622Captain John Mason received a grant from the Plymouth Council for New England for all the land between the Naumkeag and Merrimack Rivers, which included Cape Ann.People and Communities, Economy and Industry, Land Ownership, European Colonists
Mason never set foot in New England. In 1635, the Plymouth Council surrendered its charter to the king, and Mason died soon after. His descendants attempted to revive the claim but were ultimately defeated in 1681.
Hammond, Otis Grant. The Mason Title and Its Relations to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. American Antiquarian Society, 1916, https://archive.org/details/masontitleitsrel00hamm/page/n1/mode/2up. "Mason's Claim": https://historicipswich.net/2021/05/28/masons-claim-2/. Massachusetts Colony; Nathanial Bradstreet Shurtleff ed.; Massachusetts General Court. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England. 1854, https://archive.org/details/recordsofgoverno05mass/page/n5/mode/2up.