MR. MASSIE is of an ancient Cheshire family, one of the oldest in the county. His father, the Rev. Richard Massie (1771–1854), was the only child of Thomas Massie, of Cod­dington, Cheshire, England, and Elizabeth, a daughter of Nathaniel Marriott, Esq., of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. His mother, Hester Lee Townshend, the eldest daughter of Col. Edward V. Townshend, of Wincham Hall, Cheshire, was married in 1796, and had twenty-two children, of whom eighteen came to maturity.

Richard Massie was the eldest son of this large family, and was born June 18, 1800. His early days were spent at Chester, where his father was settled from 1803 to 1832 in charge of the parish of St. Brides. He married, January 7, 1834, Mary Ann, the eldest daughter of Hugh Robert Hughes, of Blache Hall, Chester. She died in 1841. Mr. Massie, being a gentleman of wealth and leisure, has de­voted himself to literature. He resides at Pulford Hall, Coddington, Cheshire; and has, also, a seat at Wrexham, in Denbighshire, Wales. Both seats are but a few miles south of Chester. In 1854, he published a translation of Martin Luther’s Spiritual Songs; and, in 1860, Lyra Domestica: Translated from the ‘Psaltery and Harp,’ of C. J. P. Spitta, by Richard Massie—which contains sev­eral hymns that have become quite popular.

by Edwin Hatfield
The Poets of the Church (1884)