Mason-Grant

Founded in 1986 by Lew Harriman, Mason-Grant provided technical research, training, facilitating and publishing for companies, institutions, building owners, government agencies and fellow consultants. Typical topics include: humidity control & drying, desiccant systems, moisture problems in buildings, engineering weather data and HVAC systems. Projects included both the theoretical and applied aspects of these topics, as well as related market research and new product development.

The firm was operated as a proprietorship, and was a small business as defined by the U.S. Federal Government. Our Dun & Bradstreet record number remains 62-314-9770. The Federal Government CAGE Code (contractor identification number) is 6YQZ6.

The Mason-Grant Name

Clients sometimes asked us: "Who are Mason and Grant"? or "How'd you come up with the name Mason-Grant"?

Portsmouth New Hampshire and its surrounding forests were known to the English colonists in 1629 as "The Mason Grant", because the land was granted by King Charles I to Captain John Mason. We turned that historical fact into our company name.

As a successful entrepreneur with an international perspective, eclectic interests and talents in many areas, John Mason serves as a wholly suitable spirit-in-residence for Mason-Grant Consulting.

About Captain John Mason 1586 - 1635

In 1610, King James I of England and Scotland appointed John Mason as a Captain, and commissioned him to equip two ships with soldiers to bring order to the settlements on the Hebrides Islands and to protect Andrew Knox, their newly-appointed Scottish Bishop. The King directed that the expenses for the mission be borne by Mason... and reimbursed by the Scottish treasury.

Mason accomplished the task with distinction, returning for reimbursement two years later. Unfortunately, the Scottish treasurer, the Earl of Dunbar, had recently died. No money was available to cover the debt of £2,238 sterling.

In fact, although many attempts were made to reimburse Mason though government appointments, he never got paid. The debt had mounted to £12,489 by 1629, ... a cautionary tale for consultants who fail to collect promptly from powerful clients with seemingly solid credit ratings.

Mason did not appear to let this annoy him. He continued in loyal and extensive service to both King James (the fellow who commissioned the “King James” version of the English Bible) and his son, King Charles I (who later lost his head in a dispute with the English Parliament).

In 1615, John Mason was appointed Royal Governor of Newfoundland in North America, a colony that had been established five years earlier. By contemporary accounts he did a good job, chasing away pirates, protecting fishing, and adding to navigation and chart knowledge of the North Atlantic coast.

Between 1620 and 1622, he performed various tasks both civil and military along the New England Coast. In 1622, Mason and a partner were awarded the first of three land grants in what is now Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

The third of the grants, or "patents," was given by the New England Council in 1629 acting under King Charles' authority. It gave Mason the right to develop a colony or "plantation" on the land between the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers. This is basically today's 13 miles of New Hampshire seacoast. The 1629 document is the first time the land is called "New Hampshire" —though contemporary accounts also referred to it as "The Mason Grant."