The Noble and Gentle Men of England / or, notes touching the arms and descents of the ancient knightly and gentle houses of England, arranged in their respective counties.

by Evelyn Philip Shirley

Arms.—Azure, a fess or, fretty gules, between two fleurs-de-lis of the second. Another coat was granted by Dethick to Sir Ralph Leycester of Toft, the second year of Edward VI., viz. Sable, on a fess engrailed between three falcons volant argent, beaked and membered or, a lion's head caboshed azure between two covered cups gules. But this very unnecessary and overloaded coat does not appear to have been used.

Present Representative, Ralph Oswald Leycester, Esq.

Massie of Coddington.

The pedigree in Ormerod begins with Hugh Massie, who married Agnes, daughter and heir of Nicholas Bold, of Coddington. Their son William purchased the manor of Coddington in the eighteenth of Henry VI. The parentage of Hugh Massie is a matter of dispute, but he was probably a younger son of Sir John Massie of Tatton, who died in the eighth of Henry. He is also by others supposed to have been descended from the Massies of Podington, a younger branch of the Barons of Dunham Massey. This family is perhaps the only remnant in the direct male line of the posterity of any of the Cheshire Barons. General Massie, a younger son of this house, was a distinguished officer in the Civil Wars, both in the service of the Commonwealth and in that of Charles II.

Younger branches: Massey of Pool-Hall, in this county, descended from the second son of Massie of Coddington, who was born in 1604. From Edward the third son descended the Massies of Rosthorne, also in Cheshire, now extinct. For the extinct branches of Broxton and Podington, see Ormerod, ii. 372 and 308; for Massie of Coddington, ii. 399; for Massie of Pool-Hall, iii. 188.

Arms.—Quarterly gules and or, in the first and fourth three fleurs-de-lis argent, a canton of the third. There was a dispute about the arms of Massey between the Houses of Tatton and Podington (for which see "The Scrope and Grosvenor Roll," vol. ii. p. 262), which was decided in 1378 by the arbitration of Sir Hugh Calveley and others. The present coat, except that the first and second quarters were or, and the canton omitted, was awarded to Massey of Podington. Massey of Tatton bore the same arms with three escallops argent in lieu of the fleurs-de-lis. The elder line of Dunham bore Quarterly or and gules, in the second quarter a lion passant argent.

Present Representative, Richard Massie, Esq.

Wilbraham of Delamere.