MASTERS, Sir Edward (1574-1648), of Ospringe, East Langdon and Canterbury, Kent.

The Masters family were relative newcomers to the ranks of the Kentish gentry, for although they were long-established in the borough of Sandwich, it was only with Masters’ father, who settled the family in East Langdon, that they achieved armigerous status. Unlike his father, who opposed the royal loans of 1621 and 1627, Masters himself displayed little disaffection towards the crown during the period before 1640. In the three decades after being called to the bar at Gray’s Inn in 1603 he remained a relatively minor player in local affairs, concentrating instead on his legal practice, although he was a captain of the city trained bands in Canterbury by 1625.20HMC 9th Rep. pt. 1, 163. During the 1630s, however, Masters’ standing within the county gradually improved: he was knighted in 1630, succeeded to the family estates in 1631, and was pricked as sheriff in 1638.21Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 197; List of Sheriffs, 69. Masters seems to have been conscientious in fulfilling his duties in the collection of Ship Money in the county during his shrievalty.22HMC 5th Rep. 570; CSP Dom. 1638-9, p. 265. His loyalty to the crown may also be deduced from the service of some of his company of trained bands in Scotland during the first bishops’ war in 1639.23Canterbury Cathedral Archives, A/C4, f. 158. Nevertheless, in tumultuous circumstances in the Short Parliament election at Canterbury, Masters was clearly returned as an opponent of the court, as he was chosen as MP alongside his son-in-law, John Nutt*, in a contest against William Dell*, secretary to the archbishop of Canterbury, and Sir Roger Palmer*, the future royalist and cofferer to Charles I, who had been proposed by Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke, lord chamberlain and lord lieutenant of the county.24Canterbury Cathedral Archives, A/C4, f. 151v; Add. 11045, f. 99v; CSP Dom. 1639-40, p. 562; CCC 1394.

That Masters was actively opposing candidates perceived to be connected to the court is also evident from his involvement in the controversial county election, in his capacity as sheriff. After considerable machination, it became evident that there was likely to be contest for one of the seats between Sir Roger Twysden* and Sir Edward Dering*. Masters’ first inclination appears to have been to avoid a poll, by proposing that the two men should either ‘cast dice’ or ‘draw lots’. Dering later claimed, however, that once it became clear that a poll was inevitable, ‘the sheriff was made to warp strongly to Twysden’ and the ‘puritan faction’. Alleging that he had a clear majority ‘in eye and ear’, Dering suggested that Twysden’s supporters persuaded many thousands that a poll would be useless, leaving little more than 3,500 voters, but also that the clerks were ‘industrious’ for Twysden, and that at least one sheet recording his votes was ‘embezzled’. He concluded that Twysden’s victory was achieved by means of ‘foul play, false clerks and [a] warping sheriff’.25Bodl. Top. Kent e.6, pp. 83-7; Rawl. D.141, p. 4; Procs. in Kent 1640 ed. Larking, 5.

Masters made no recorded impression on the Short Parliament, but was able to secure re-election at Canterbury in the autumn, apparently without a contest. Once again, however, his impact on developments at Westminster was limited, although this may in part have been a result of his age. Approaching 70 as Parliament assembled, Masters was twice granted leave to return to the country before the summer of 1642.26CJ ii. 266b, 490a, 636; PJ iii. 116. He was named to just one committee during this period, regarding the office of clerk of the market (29 Jan. 1641), although he appears to have taken the Protestation without reservation, offered to loan £500 in July 1641, and invested in the Irish adventure.27CJ ii. 75a, 133a, 222a; Harl. 479, f. 89; CSP Ire. Adv. 73-4. In June 1642, moreover, he offered a further £200 for the defence of Parliament.28PJ iii. 472.

That Masters was already perceived to be one of the more moderate members of the proto-parliamentarian faction at Westminster is evident from those local ministers who appealed to him for help, alongside men like Sir Peter Heyman* and Sir Thomas Peyton*.29Add. 26785, f. 107. It is also evident from the fact that it was to Masters that men like Peyton themselves turned for advice over the legitimacy of the Protestation.30Add. 44846, f. 11. Indeed, while he was named as a commissioner for disarming recusants in Canterbury in the summer of 1641, Masters earned the thanks of the cathedral’s prebendaries in early 1642 for his ‘care and noble love’, in seeking to protect the cathedral from those among the local godly who sought to encroach upon its authority, over issues such as the removal of the precincts’ gates.31LJ iv. 385b; LJ v. 677a.

Masters played no recorded part in the agitation over the rival Kentish petitions in the spring of 1642, but as the county divided in the summer, he quickly displayed his support for Parliament. He was a member of the delegation sent to the Kent assizes in July in order to undermine local malignants, and in the months which followed assisted in efforts to prevent Canterbury from becoming a focal point for royalist agitation, by orchestrating the disarming of suspects and delinquents.32CJ ii. 686b, 702b, 893b. These included Dr Humphrey Peake, a canon of the cathedral, who had preached a seditious sermon on 5 November, and whose impeachment Masters was ordered to prepare.33CJ ii. 852a; Walker Revised, 223. Masters’ willingness to support Parliament was also made evident through an offer made in December 1642 to lend £10 per month, and as a result he was made an assessment commissioner in the spring of 1643, while in the wake of the Kentish rising in the following summer, he was also added to the local sequestrations commission.34Add. 18777, f. 109v; LJ vi. 29a; CJ iii. 125b, 195a, 216b, 248a. Nevertheless, while he was named to the committee regarding the Kent committees in November 1644, there is no evidence that Masters himself served on the county committee.35CJ iii. 688a

It is likely that by the winter of 1644 Masters was at best a marginal figure in the county, where new and more radical figures were gaining prominence, and it may have been political disillusionment as well as his advanced age which kept him from active service in the Commons. Between the end of 1644 and the spring of 1648 his name is mentioned only three times in the Journals, each occasion involving his absence being granted or excused.36CJ v. 186a, 307a, 329b. The renewed royalist threat in Kent in the spring of 1648 ensured that Masters was named to a committee regarding local musters (20 Apr.), but thereafter he made no recorded appearances before his death in early August. Masters was buried in St Michael’s chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, and his wealth was sufficient to bequeath portions of £1,000 to each of three unmarried daughters.37CJ v. 538a; ‘Vis. of the county of Kent’, 239; PROB11/205/277.