Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Massingberd, Francis Charles

by Edmund Venables

MASSINGBERD, FRANCIS CHARLES (1800–1872), chancellor of Lincoln, the son of Francis Massingberd, rector of Washingborough, near Lincpln, and Elizabeth, his wife, youngest daughter of William Burrell Massingberd of OrmsbyHall, was born at his father's rectory, 3 Dec. 1800, and baptised 30 Dec. After preparatory education at a school at Eltham, Kent, he entered Rugby School under Dr. Wooll in 1814. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and was elected a demy, 23 July 1818. He gained a second class in literæ humaniores, and graduated B.A. 5 Dec. 1822, M.A. 26 June 1825. He was ordained deacon by Edward Legge, bishop of Oxford, 13 June 1824, and priest by Bishop Tomline [q. v.] of Lincoln, 5 Sept. 1825, and was instituted to the family living of South Ormsby, Lincolnshire, on 9 Dec. of that year. He had during the previous summer, together with his friend William Ralph Churton [q. v.], accompanied Dr. Arnold, head-master of Rugby, in a visit to Italy, undertaken by Arnold to determine the line of Hannibal's passage over the Alps, and to explore the battlefields of his campaign, for the purposes of his 'Roman History.' When settled at Ormsby he devoted himself assiduously to the care of his parish, containing a scattered rural population, whom he watched over with fatherly solicitude. He rebuilt Driby church, and thoroughly restored that at Ormsby, erected a new rectory on a better site, and built schools, which he had originally started in a kitchen. In 1840, at the request of his lifelong friend, Edward Churton [q. v.], who revised the proofs during his absence from England, he undertook the 'English History of the leaders of the Reformation,' as one of the series known as the ' Englishman's Library,' of which Churton was the editor. It was published in 1842, and reached a fourth edition in 1866. Written from a distinctly high-church point of view, it affords a clear, temperate, and on the whole trustworthy narrative of the events of the period, and is free from sectarian bitterness. The style is pleasing, and it may still be read with profit. In 1841 he visited Italy, and spent two winters in Rome on account of his health. He delighted to tell how, 'Polybius in hand,' he walked over the battlefield of Thrasimene, which he had surveyed with Arnold seventeen years before. He was back at Ormsby in 1844. In 1846 he declined an offer from Bishop Phillpotts [q. v.] of Exeter to exchange into that diocese with the prospect of appointment to the first vacant arch-deaconry. He was collated to the prebendal stall of Thorngate in Lincoln Cathedral by Bishop Kaye, 15 May 1847, and was made chancellor and canon residentiary by Bishop Jackson, 11 Dec. 1862.

From an early period he had been a strenuous advocate for the revival of the deliberative functions of convocation. In 1833 he published 'Reasons for a Session of Convocation,' and when that object was attained he was one of its most active members, first as proctor for the parochial clergy in 1857, and subsequently, in 1868, for the chapter. He frequently sat on committees and drew up their reports, and took a large share in the debates, proving himself a persuasive, if prolix, speaker. As chancellor of Lincoln he directed his efforts to the increase of the practical efficiency of the cathedral. Together with other minor reforms, he was the first to institute an afternoon nave sermon, and during successive Lents he delivered courses of lectures on the prayer-book and on church history. He died in London of congestion of the lungs on 5 Dec. 1872, and was buried at South Ormsby.

On 15 Jan. 1839 he married at Putney Church Fanny, eldest daughter of William Baring, esq., M.P., and granddaughter of Sir Francis Baring, bart. [q. v.] He left two sons: Francis Burrell, captain 5th lancers; and William Oswald, rector of Ormsby since 1873. He was a typical high churchman of the school of John Keble, and in politics was a strong tory.

Besides many occasional sermons, pamphlets, letters, and printed speeches on ecclesiastical subjects, of which a catalogue is given in Bloxam's 'Magdalen College Register' (vii. 273), his chief literary works, apart from his 'English leaders of the Reformation' (1842), were:

1. 'The Educational and Missionary Work of the Church in the Eighteenth Century,' 1857.
2. 'The Law of the Church and the Law of the State,' 1859.
3. 'Lectures on the Prayer Book,' 1864.
4. 'Sermons on Unity, with an Essay on Religious Societies,' 1868, 8vo.

[Bloxam's Magdalen College Register, vii. 272-279; private information.]

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