Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/628

592 polier on the death of Russell. He distinguished himself so greatly in this office that in 1548 the Grand-Master D’Omedes and council rescinded the resolution carried on the death of Russell, and appointed Upton Turcopolier. He died in 1551 from the effects of a coup tie soled, which he received whilst resisting a descent on the island of Malta by Dragut. The Grand-Master declared his death to be a national loss.

was the second son of Sir Thomas Massingberd, of Sutton, in the county of Lincoln. He appears, like West, to have been & man of a most violent and insubordinate temper, and to have been in continual trouble whilst at Malta. On one occasion he was brought before the council for the murder of four slaves, for which act he was deprived of his habit for two days. The following entry appears also amongst the records of the council in 1552:—“The right reverend Lord the Grand-Master and Venerable Council, having heard the report of the commanders deputed to inquire into the complaint preferred by the noble Paolo Fiteni against the Lord Lieutenant of the Turcopolier, Brother Oswald Massingberd, for having forcibly entered his house and violently taken therefrom a certain female slave with her daughter whom he had recently purchased from the Order, and for having struck him with his fist, and also having heard the said de Massingberd in contradiction, who pretended that the above-mentioned Paolo could in no way have purchased the female slave as she had previously been branded with certain marks in his name, as is customary and usual on similar occasions, and that therefore the preference in the purchase of the said slave appertained to him, de Massingberd, do now, after mature deliberation, condemn the said de Massingberd to restore the above-mentioned female slave with her daughter to Fiteni, and order that they shall be restored accordingly. Further, in consideration of the force and violence used, they furthermore decree that he shall remain and be kept for two months within his own residence, and that for this period he shall not be permitted to leave it” (vide list of crimes, Chapter XXI.).

had been professed a knight in 1545, but had shortly after become a Protestant, abandoning the