CFHS code : ML9
Parish : St Mary the Less
Inscription : IFMO JOHN MASSEY bur Oct 28 1875 age 79
Monument : Stone cross (broken)
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
This plinth stands east of and close to the curved path that runs round the centre circle In the parish area of Mary the Less, (just behind a bench). The carved inscription which is on the west face, is badly eroded with some parts missing and can only be seen in slanting sunlight. some loose stones nearby may be part of the cross.
Inscription
In Fraternal Remembrance Of
JOHN MASSEY ……..d Oc[t 28 1875 age 79]
John Massey (c.1796 – 24 October 1875)
John is believed to have been the son of John and Mary who were married at St Clement’s church in March 1796. Both appear in the burial register John and Mary (1825)
In 1851 he was working as butler to the President of Queen’s College. It is thought that soon after he was made curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum (which had opened in 1848) and when his niece Mary Ann Massey married in June 1852 it was reported she was the niece of ‘Mr. John Massey of the Fitzwilliam Museum’. In February 1855 the annual meeting of the Church of England Young Men’s Society reported that 50 volumes had been donated to their library – of these 10 had been donated by John. In April 1866 John’s wages were increased from £100 to £135 per annum, by the Senate. The Cambridge Chronicle and Journal reported that ‘for thirty-one years Mr. Massey has faithfully fulfilled his duties’. He is also known to have been a generous donor to the Victoria Benefit Societies’ Asylum and in October 1868 was appointed auditor of the newly formed Cambridge Junior Conservative Club. John did not marry and lived at 11 Fitzwilliam Street. He died at home aged 79 years old and announcements of his death read ‘for many years curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum’.
In 1861 he was lodging at 11 Fitzwilliam St and in 1871 was the head of household with 1 servant Cecilia Frisby. Cecilia was the daughter of James and Amy Frisby and her brother Noah was assistant curator at the Fitzwiliam museum from 1853.
He left an estate valued at c.£3,000 and the executors of his will were surgeon John Deighton, and college manciple Edward Haggis. In October 1879 solicitors Poland Adcock offered a reward of £5 for anyone who could produce the baptismal certificate for either John or his brother George (1807-1844) , and adverts stated that they believed the brothers had been baptised in either Whittlesey or King’s Lynn. Records show that George Massey was baptised at St Clement’s church in Cambridge on 23 February 1812 with a note that he was born in 1807. John Massey put his birth place as the parish of St. Clement’s on census returns.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
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