George Mason's great-grandfather, George Mason I, had been a Cavalier: militarily defeated in the English Civil War, some of them came to America in the 1640s and 1650s.
George Mason's great-grandfather George Mason I had been a Cavalier, a Royalist supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War. The cavaliers had been defeated, and some of them came to America in the 1640s and 1650s.