[Illustration] This very ancient family is descended from Lambert Massyngberd of Soterton, now Sutterton, in this county, who lived in the reign of Edward I. and has ever since remained in Lincolnshire. In the latter part of the fifteenth century, by the marriage of Sir Thomas Massyngberd with the heiress of Braytoft of Braytoft Hall in Gunby, the Massingberds removed to that place, which became the principal seat of their descendants. Ormsby, purchased from the Skipwiths in 1636, and afterwards Gunby Hall, built by Sir William Massingberd, the 2nd Baronet of this family, in 1699, was their principal residence, till it went by an heiress to a younger branch of the Langtons, who have assumed the name. Wrangle is a recent purchase in this county by the present representative of the male line of the family. The Massingberds early embraced the Reformed faith. Thomas Massingberd, the last representative for Calais in 1552, "fled abroad for his religion" under Mary. Nevertheless his descendant, William Burrell Massingberd of Ormsby, joined Prince Charles Edward at Derby: a miniature given to him by the Prince is still in the family. Ormsby belongs at present to a younger branch of the Mundys of Markeaton in Derbyshire, who have assumed the name of Massingberd. See the Genealogy of this House, a MS. by Robert Dale, Suffolk Herald, compiled about the year 1718, and still at Ormsby; and Allen's History of the County, under Ormsby and Gunby. ARMS.--_Azure, three quatrefoils (two and one,) and in chief a boar passant or, charged on the shoulder with a cross patée gules_, with which the following coat is generally quartered, said to be the arms assumed by Sir Thomas Massingberd, Knight of St. John, in the reign of Henry VIII. _Quarterly or and argent, on a cross humetté gules, between four lions rampant sable, two escallops of the first_. Present Representative, The Rev. Francis Charles Massingberd. MONSON OF BURTON, BARON MONSON 1728, BARONET 1611. [Illustration] "In the Isle" of Axholme "be now there 4 gentilmen of name, Sheffild, Candisch, Evers, and _Mounsun_. The lands of one Bellewodde became by marriage to this Mounson, a younger son to old Mounson of Lincolnshire. This old Mounson is in a maner the first avauncer of his family." Thus wrote Leland in his Itinerary. The Monsons however are clearly traced to the year 1378, as resident at East-Reson, in this county. They were afterwards seated at South Carlton, a village adjacent to Burton. See Leland's Itin., i. fol. 42; Allen's Lincolnshire, ii. 57; and Brydges's Collins, vii. 228. ARMS.--_Or, two chevronels gules_. Present Representative, William John Monson, 7th Baron Monson. WHICHCOTE OF ASWARBY, BARONET 1660.