Mason was a grandson of George Mason and his wife Ann Eilbeck. Richard Chichester Mason was born at Newington in Fairfax County, Virginia on 7 May 1793. Mason was the son of Thomson Mason (1759–1820) and his wife Sarah McCarty Chichester.
Mason married Lucy Bolling Randolph, daughter of Colonel Robert Randolph, on 14 May 1816 at Eastern View in Fauquier County, Virginia.
Mason attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and graduated with his Doctor of Medicine in 1816.
Mason"s doctoral thesis was on menstruation. While practicing medicine in Alexandria, Mason also served as a justice of the peace in the community. Mason retired from his practice at the age of 45 to work his farm at Okeley Manor.
He later served with the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War in Richmond.
Mason returned home at age 72 to find the mansion at Okeley, used during the war as a hospital, burned to the ground to prevent the spread of smallpox. Mason also discovered that a negro and an Irishman were in possession of the property.
By 1880, Mason"s son Beverley had recovered the property and was residing in a house he built on the hill. Mason died on 22 July 1869 at Rutledge in Fauquier County, Virginia at age 76.
