Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/18

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Massey
4
Massey

see Old Parliamentary Hist. xvi. 70, 116), and on the approach of the army to London Massey fled to Holland. On 9 Aug., together with Poyntz, he published an apology explaining their flight and justifying their action (Rushworth, Collections, vii. 765). Massey, although summoned to appear in parliament before 16 Oct. 1647 and answer the charges, did not return to take his seat till early in September 1648. From that time till his exclusion by Pride's Purge (6 Dec.) he sat and voted with the presbyterians. On 12 Dec. he was imprisoned with Waller, but escaped on 18 Jan. from St. James's to Holland (ib. vii. 1394; Clarendon, Hist. of Rebellion, xi. 208; Clarendon State Papers, i. 464).

Massey now definitely took service under the king, and spent some time at the Hague and later at Breda. He was one of the few English royalists whom the Scots allowed to attend on Charles II. In preparation for Charles's invasion he was appointed lieutenant-general and second in command of a regiment of horse to be raised by the Duke of Buckingham (Heath, Chronicle, ed. 1663, pp. 505, 529). Massey was made governor of Kirkcaldy; he kept the bridge five miles east of Stirling with a brigade of horse against Cromwell, and took part in the battle of Inverkeithing on 20 July 1651 (Whitelock, p. 472). When Charles marched into England, Massey preceded him, and vainly attempted to induce the Lancashire presbyterians, with whom he had some personal influence, to join the king (Clarendon, Hist. of Rebellion, xiii. § 68). He took part in the skirmish at Warrington Bridge, and on 29 Aug. tried in vain to hold Upton Bridge against Lambert. In the fight Massey was injured, and was therefore unable to take part in the battle of Worcester (3 Sept.); he, however, accompanied Charles in his flight as far as Droitwich, where he fell behind and threw himself on the protection of Lady Stamford at Broadgate, Leicestershire (ib. xiii. §§ 73, 136; Cary, Memorials of Civil War, pp. 376, 381). When sufficiently recovered he was moved to London for trial, and, after making an ineffectual attempt to escape, was lodged in the Tower (November 1651). He escaped, however, in August 1652, and fled to Holland (Clarendon, Hist. of Rebellion, xiii. § 137), and for some years worked, as one of the leaders of the presbyterian party, to bring about the return of Charles. In spite of plotting and negotiating, Massey was looked upon with distrust by the royalists. Sir Walter Strickland wrote of him in December 1649: 'And truly I have not yet seen a man thrust himself into a business with less advantage than he did. It seems that he had rather play at a small game than stand out' (Cary, Memorials of Civil War, ii. 203). Hyde also wrote of Massey as 'a wonderfully vain and weak man' (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 144) Massey seems, however, to have been useful to Charles in negotiations with the English presbyterians. He visited England in 1654 and 1656 on this business, and again after Oliver Cromwell's death. In 1655 he was in Denmark (Clarendon State Papers, in the Bodleian, iii. 67), and in 1657 mention is made of his possible employment by the Spaniards (ib. p. 399). In 1659 Massey was busy round Gloucester preparing for a rising, but was betrayed by Sir Richard Willis and was taken. He escaped at Nympsfield Hill on 31 July 1659 (Clarendon, Hist. of Rebellion, xvi. §§ 25, 31 , 37). In January 1660 Charles empowered him to renew his attempts on Gloucester, and appointed him governor. Massey, after conferring with General Monck in London, arrived in the city in March (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 646, 647), and represented it in the Convention parliament (cf. Thurloe, vii. 854, 865, 872, 877). After the Restoration he was rewarded by knighthood (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 199), and on 16 May by a vote of 1,000l., which was increased by a second vote of 3,000l. on 19 Dec. (Commons' Journals, viii. 215). In September he was appointed governor of Jamaica, but does not seem to have gone thither, as he was elected M.P. for Gloucester in April 1661. In 1665 he was appointed one of the commissioners of prizes (ib. 1664-5, p. 245), and during the Dutch war was commander of auxiliary troops to be raised by himself (ib. 1665-6, p. 520). He continued to sit in parliament until his death, which took place, according to Le Neve, in Ireland either towards the end of 1674 or the beginning of 1675 (Le Neve, Pedigrees of Knights, pp. 51-2; Names of Members returned to serve in Parliament, i. 523; Accounts and Papers, vol. lxii.) He was unmarried.

Massey, as a strong presbyterian and a pronounced enemy of independency, was opposed to Charles I on religious rather than on political grounds. He was straightforward and honest (none of the charges brought against him have been proved), and of great personal bravery. He had also the power of winning the confidence of those about him. In person he was of a 'middle stature,' with 'brown hair' and 'sanguine complexion' (A New Hue and Cry. after Major-General Massey and some others, London, 1652). Portraits of him appear in Ricraft's 'Survey of