Henry Lee Massey
MSA SC 3520-17872
Biography:
Born around 1750, Henry Lee Massey began his military career as an infantry private in 1776, during the Revolutionary War's earliest days. He later rose to gain command of his own ship in the state's navy. After living in Maryland for many years, he moved to Michigan late in life.
Massey enlisted in Maryland's Fifth Independent Company, led by Captain John Allen Thomas, in April 1776. The company was raised in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and was one of seven independent companies that the Maryland Council of Safety formed across the state in early 1776, initially intended to guard the Chesapeake Bay's coastline from a feared British invasion. By that summer, however, the independent companies were dispatched to New York, to help reinforce the Continental Army as it prepared to defend the city from the British. In total, twelve companies of Maryland troops traveled to New York that July and August: nine companies that comprised the First Maryland Regiment, commanded by Colonel William Smallwood, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Independent companies, the only three that were ready to travel then. [1]
On August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. The battle was a rout: the British were able to sneak around the American lines, and the outflanked Americans fled in disarray. During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. While half the regiment was able to cross the creek, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, the Marylanders mounted a series of daring charges. These men, now known as the "Maryland 400," held the British at bay long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape, at the cost of many lives. In all, 256 Marylanders were killed or captured by the British; some companies lost as much as 80 percent of their men. Massey and his company likely saw little combat. Instead, the Fifth Independent Company did not cross the East River from Manhattan to Brooklyn until after the fighting had begun, and did not venture into the field of battle. They did, however, perform valuable service assisting the Americans retreating through the Gowanus Marsh. [2]
During the fall of 1776, Massey and the rest of the Marylanders fought a series of battles in New York: Harlem Heights (September), White Plains (October), and Fort Washington (November). While the Americans had some tactical successes at these engagements, by November they had been pushed out of New York entirely, though they secured key revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. At the end of the year, the independent companies were disbanded. Massey's enlistment ended, and he returned to Maryland. [3]
Many men from the independent companies stayed in the infantry, joining the newly-created Second Maryland Regiment. Rather than reenlist in the army, however, Massey instead sought a position in the state's fledgling navy. His old captain John Allen Thomas, an influential figure in St. Mary's County, wrote to Maryland's governor on Massey's behalf in April 1777. Massey had "behaved remarkably well" during his time in the army, wrote Thomas, "but being bred a Sailor, he is desirous of entering on Board the Defence," the flagship of the Maryland navy. Massey must have been well-connected himself, as he was acquainted with George Cook, the Defence's captain, who "would gladly have him on Board his Ship." Massey's request was granted, and a month later he was made a midshipman on board the Defence, a rank which signaled that he in line for a commission as an officer. [4]
After serving as a midshipman from May to December 1777, Massey received his own command in January 1778. He was made the captain of the schooner Amelia, which Massey described as a "look Out boat." It was smaller, carrying only four guns, and served as a tender, or scout ship, initially for the Defence. During the time it was under Massey's command, the Amelia as attached to the Continental Navy frigate Virginia. The Amelia saw service in the Chesapeake Bay, where the British navy had a large presence. In January, just after Massey took over the ship, the Amelia and the Virginia were dispatched to the southern end of the Chesapeake to potentially slip through the blockade the British had established at the mouth of the bay, although they were unsuccessful in this. The Amelia spent the next few months sailing in the bay, often transporting supplies. In the summer of 1778, however, Maryland sold most of its naval vessels, deciding that it was too expensive and difficult to keep them supplied and crewed. Massey remained with the Amelia at least through the end of July, before leaving the military. [5]
The Amelia was based in Annapolis, and Massey likely stayed in the city for a few years after he left the navy, and lived there at least into the 1780s. In May 1779, he married Sarah Mitchell; they had at least one son, but his name is not known. Truly "bred a Sailor," Massey worked as a waterman. Over the next decades, the family moved several times. In 1800 they lived in St. Mary's County, but by 1818, Sarah had died and Henry was living in Baltimore City at his son's house. In that year, at age sixty-seven and unable to pursue work because of his age, Massey applied for a veteran's pension from the Federal government. He was awarded eight dollars per month, the rate of pay for a private, which he received for the rest of his life. [6]
In November 1820, Massey married his second wife, a woman named Francis Smith, who was about 28 years old, more than forty years younger than her husband. They were married in Sussex County, Delaware. Whether they lived there at the time of their wedding is not clear, but they were residents of the county by 1823. They may have had children together, including Nancy (1825-1906) and Clifford (1832-1865), although Henry's age casts some doubt onto that. The family moved in 1833 to Cass County, Michigan, in the southwestern corner of the state, and settled in Milton Township. [7]
Henry Massey died in Cass County on January 3, 1839, at nearly ninety years old. Francis continued to receive his veteran's pension, and in 1855 also obtained the bounty land that Henry had earned with his military service. She died in Cass County in 1885, at the age of ninety-three. [8]
Owen Lourie, 2018
Sources:
[1] Pension of Henry Massey, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, W 5343, from Fold3.com; Mark Andrew Tacyn "'To the End:' The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution" (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 33-45.
[2] Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com; Tacyn, 48-73; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 154-155. For more on the experience of the Marylanders at the Battle of Brooklyn, see "In Their Own Words," on the Maryland State Archives research blog, Finding the Maryland 400.
[3] Massey pension. At times, Massey asserted that he left the army in October 1776, just after the Battle of White Plains, but it is more likely that he served until the end of the year.
[4] John Allen Thomas to Gov. Thomas Johnson, 23 April 1777, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 17, no. 7, MdHR 4581-7 [MSA S989-25, 1/6/4/13]; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 658.
[5] Massey pension; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 658; American War of Independence at Sea, Frigate Virginia; C.O. Paullin, "The Naval Administration of the Southern States during the Revolution," The Sewanee Review 10:4 (Oct. 1902), 420-421; Receipt for wages paid, Henry Massey, January-April 1778, Maryland State Papers, Series A, box 12, no. 9c, MdHR 6636-12-9c [MSA S1004-13-635, 1/7/3/30]; Receipt for wages paid, Henry Massey, 31 July 1778, Maryland State Papers, Series A, box 12, no. 11-41, MdHR 6636-12-11/41 [MSA S1004-13-1189, 1/7/3/30].
[6] Marriage of Henry Massey and Sarah Mitchell, 17 May 1779, Anne Arundel County Court, Marriage Licenses, 1777-1813, p. 8 [MSA C113-1, 1/1/11/27]; Massey pension; General Assembly, House of Delegates, Assessment Record, 1783, Annapolis Hundred, p. 3 [MSA S1161-1-1, 1/4/5/44]; U.S. Federal Census, 1800, St. Mary's County, Maryland. Why Massey's pension was paid only at the rate of a private is not clear, but he never disputed it.
[7] Massey pension; U.S. Federal Census, 1830, Broad Creek, Sussex County, Delaware; FindAGrave for Francis Massey; FindAGrave for Nancy Massey Blashfield; FindAGrave for Clifford Massey.
[8] Massey pension; FindAGrave for Francis Massey; U.S. Federal Census, 1850, Milton Township, Cass County, Michigan. The location of the bounty land is not known
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