THE MASTERMAN FAMILY
by Elaine Robertson
JOHN MASTERMAN
The first of our MASTERMAN ancestors whose name we know is John MASTERMAN. He was a potter, he married a girl called Margaret ANDERSON at All Saints' Church, Newcastle upon Tyne on 14 May 1826, and they had three (possibly four - see below) children. He died at Cut Bank, Newcastle upon Tyne on 2 January 1855. The death certificate shows that his son, our ancestor, Thomas MASTERMAN of 96 High Wesley Street, Newcastle upon Tyne was the informant. Cause of death was asthma.
At the time of his death John MASTERMAN was 66 years old, which means that he was born in 1789, but since we have not yet been able to find him on any Census return we do not know where he was born.
However, two of his children were baptised at Sunderland/Monkwearmouth, so it seems likely that he had some connection with a branch of the family living there. His first child, Mary, was baptised at Sunderland in 1828, the second child, Thomas (our great great grandfather) was born at Monkwearmouth, on 24 September 1829 and baptised there (at St. Peter's Church) on 14 February 1830. It may be that Margaret MASTERMAN went to her in-laws for the birth of these children. Thomas's third child, Margaret, was baptised at All Saints, Newcastle on 1 April 1834.
If our John MASTERMAN was born at Monkwearmouth, it is possible that he started his working life as a potter at the North Hylton Pot Works which were set up in the parish of Monkwearmouth by William Maling in 1743. 
We know from a booklet entitled MALING A Tyneside Pottery, produced by Tyne and Wear County Council Museums (1981) that in 1815 the grandsons of William Maling transferred the pot works to Tyneside and set up at Ouseburn, where the Ouseburn Bridge Works were erected, the first kiln being fired in 1817. According to Tyneside Potteries by R. C. Bell there were at least four potteries already operating in the Ouseburn area when the Maling works opened.
If John moved north when the pottery moved, it would explain how he met and married a local girl - Margaret was baptised at Heaton in 1803, the daughter of George ANDERSON and his wife Margaret nee COXON (See tree above), who were themselves married at All Saints 1893.
JOHN MASTERMAN's FAMILY
John having died (as mentioned above) in 1855, his widow Margaret appears on the Census Return of 1861, living at Henry Pit, Byker. The entry is as follows:
| Margaret MASTERMAN | Head | W | 56 | North'land, | Heaton |
| Mary MASTERMAN | Daur | M | 33 | do | do |
| Henry Do | Son | Unm | 16 | Coalminer | Ouseburn |
This entry raises a couple of queries:(1st) Mary MASTERMAN is said to be married, although she gives her maiden name, and (2nd) if Henry is Margaret's son, he would have been born when she was about 40 years of age. I wonder whether this Henry is in fact Mary's son, born when his mother was 17 years old and single? See tree above. I shall try and find his birth in the General Register and obtain the certificate to find out who his parents were.
Henry Pit was situated just north of the Old Shields Road, opposite what is now Walkergate Hospital. The 1871 Census shows Margaret MASTERMAN still living at Henry Pit with a grandson aged 16 and a 'S/Son' (stepson?) aged 4 months.
Margaret died at Diamond Row, Walker, on 25 January 1881, immediately before the 1881 Census, which was taken on 3/4 April 1881.
Cause of death was given as 'Senile Decay and Bronchitis' . She was 78 years old. Diamond Row was a row of dwellings to the south of and running almost parallel with Welbeck Road, very near Walker Colliery (also called Ann Pit), just about where Fairhaven Avenue now is.
THOMAS MASTERMAN
Thomas MASTERMAN became a potter like his father. By 1851 he was living in the Ouseburn area of Byker, where there were many potteries. On 30/31 March 1851 (when the Census was taken) our great great grandfather lived at Grainger Yard, Cut Bank, Byker. The entry reads as follows:-
| MASTERMAN Thomas | aged 24 | Potter | b.Durham | |
| MASTERMAN Margaret | aged 21 | Sister | Warehousewoman | b.Newcastle |
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At a separate dwelling in Cut Bank lived another MASTERMAN family:
| Mary | Head | 24 | Potter | b. Newcastle |
| William BACKSTON | Son | 6 | b. Newcastle |
and another MASTERMAN family lived at Faud, Byker:
| William | aged 33 | Potter | b. Yorkshire |
| Jane | 34/36(?) | Wife | b. Newcastle |
| William | aged 11 | Son | |
| Susannah | aged 7 | Daughter | |
| Ralph | aged 4 | Son | |
| Fanny B. | 9 mths | Daughter |
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According to the Enumeration Schedule, the part of Byker in which Faud appears is described as 'all that part of the Township of Byker on the south side of Shields Road, comprising Dunn's Buildings, Dunn's Terrace, Wilkinson's Buildings, Faud, Byker Ropery, Burton Street, Cayford Street, Collingwood Terrace, Prospect Terrace, Catterick Buildings, Byker Lane, Byker Village and the cottage near the Target'.
About six weeks after this Census was taken, Thomas married Sarah BELL at St. Mary's Church, Gateshead on 12 May 1851. At that time he was said to be living at High Street, Gateshead, a Potter, 'of full age', (he would be just 21 year old) and the certificate shows that his father was John MASTERMAN, also a Potter.
His second son Michael Bell MASTERMAN was born at 96 Wesley Street, Newcastle on 12 August 1856. On the certificate, Thomas is again described as 'Potter'. Wesley Street was a long street leading north off Copland Terrace, crossing Gosforth Street and ending at Franklin Street. Only the northernmost part of it remains.
By the time of the 1861 Census (taken 7/8 April 1861) Thomas and Sarah were living at 4 Mushroom Fields, St. Anthony's and had three children. The entry is as follows:-
| Thomas | Head | M | Male | aged 32 | Potter/Presser | b. Sudick, Durham |
| Sarah | Wife | M | Female | 29 | b. S.Shields | |
| Thomas J | Son | U | Male | aged 6 | b. Newcastle | |
| Michael B | Son | U | Male | aged 4 | b. Newcastle | |
| Henry | Son | U | Male | 7 mths | b. Newcastle |
Sudick does not exist as a place name, but it appears as Sudwick in the Monkwearmouth registers. The place is now named 'Southwick', which is a district of Sunderland, near Roker.
Sarah MASTERMAN died at St. Lawrence on 6 November 1863, aged 33: the cause of death is given as 'Phthisis' (tuberculosis).
Thomas remarried only four months later, on 20 March 1864, his second wife being Euphemia YOUNG, born in Edinburgh in about 1843. At the time of his second marriage, Thomas was said to be 33 years old, and Euphemia 23.
They moved to Scotland after this second marriage and children were born to them - see family tree above. Euphemia died on 11 December 1878 aged 37, following childbirth. Thomas himself died at 374 Dobbies Loan, Glasgow on 11 March 1891 aged 61. Cause of death was given as 'heart disease and chronic bronchitis'.
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In the 1871 Census the following MASTERMAN entries appear in the parish of Longbenton:
| Henry Pit, Walker | ||||
| Margaret | Widow | aged 64 | b. Heaton | |
| Thomas | G/son | aged 16 | Coalminer | born Heaton |
| Henry | S/son | aged 3 | born Walker | |
| Diamond Row, Walker | |||||
| JACKSON Henry | Head | 45 | Coalminer | b N/cle | |
| Mary | Wife | 43 | b Durham | ||
| Ann | Dau | 14 | |||
| Barbara A. | Dau | 2 | |||
| Thomas | Son | 6 | |||
| Mary | G/dau | 4 | |||
| MASTERMAN Michael | Nephew | 13 | b. Newcastle | ||
| Garth Heads R and I School | |||
| MASTERMAN Henry | Inmate | aged 11 | b Scotland |
Margaret MASTERMAN is of course Thomas's mother. From these census entries, we can see that the three children of his first marriage were living with his mother, his sister and her husband, and at school respectively.
ANN COWEN and MICHAEL BELL MASTERMAN
Great Grandparents of Emmetts of Mindrum Terrace
Michael Bell MASTERMAN was named after his maternal grandfather, Michael BELL. Michael BELL would be over sixty by the time this child (our great grandfather) was born. He (Michael BELL) died in 1869, six years after his daughter, Michael's mother, and when his namesake was 12 years old - see THE BELL DESCENT.
It seems likely that the three sons of Thomas's first marriage never lived with their father after his second marriage. As shown above, they were scattered by the time of the 1871 census, the eldest (Thomas) living with his grandmother, our ancestor Michael Bell with an aunt and uncle, and the youngest in the Ragged and Indigent School - if the Henry MASTERMAN whose place of birth is given as 'Scotland' is in fact the brother of our ancestor. It may be that Henry moved to Scotland at some stage to join his father and stepmother, because he was the informant when John MASTERMAN died in 1891 (see above page 5). At that time Henry lived at 23 Shaftesbury Street, Glasgow.
Michael Bell MASTERMAN married Ann COWEN (see COWEN descent) at Walker Parish Church on
17 May 1880. His occupation is given as 'Driller'. Both he and Ann were 23 years old, and both lived at Walker. Walker Parish Church (Christ Church, Walker) was consecrated on 22 August 1848. Up to that time Walker had been part of the parish of Longbenton, but a separate parish was created in 1846 when the growth of industries on the Tyne (especially shipbuilding) brought an increase in population.
By the time of the 1881 Census, (taken on 3/4 April 1881, eleven months after their marriage) Michael and Ann were living at 50 Church Street, Walker. Next door at 48 Church Street, Walker, lived Ann's parents and their unmarried children, along with two of Ann's uncles (see COWEN )descent.
Michael and Ann MASTERMAN had eight children - Margaret Ann (known as 'Cissie' born 1880, Thomas born 1882, Sarah born 1883, Henry (our grandfather) born 1885, Emily Ann (known as 'Mannie' born 1888, William born 1890, James born 1891 and Minnie born 1893. The census of 1891 shows the family living at 6 Parade Crescent, Walker.
By 1901 they had moved to 13 Parade Crescent with six of their children, Margaret and Sarah perhaps being married by then. We know from our mother's autobiography that Michael Bell MASTERMAN and Ann MASTERMAN continued to live at Parade Crescent for the remainder of their lives. He died there on 19 July 1938, aged 81. She died at 11 Parade Crescent
(probably the downstairs flat described by our mother) on 29 July 1945 aged 88.
We have a photograph of the entire family (apart from Sarah), taken about 1900, and
marked on the back with all their names (in Effie's handwriting). It shows our grandfather aged about 15, with rather a gloomy look on his face, and our great grandparents (both of them still in their forties) looking like old people.
HENRY MASTERMAN and MARY ELIZABETH CASEY
Grandparents to Emmett Family of Mindrum Terrace
Henry MASTERMAN married Mary Elizabeth CASEY on 1 January 1907 at Walker Parish Church. He is described as a Boiler Maker, and was living at Parade Crescent. Mary Elizabeth's address is given as 83 Byker Terrace. His death, in 1935 at the early age of 50 is described in our mother's autobiography. His widow lived only nine years after him: she died at the age of 61 at Cuffley, Hertfordshire, while visiting her second daughter Anne, who married Sydney Tremayne in 1940 - see THE CASEY DESCENT for further details.
Mary Elizabeth CASEY and Henry MASTERMAN, parents of Effie, Anne, Bette, Harry and Mick, and grandparents to the Emmetts of Mindrum Terrace, married on 1 January 1907. The marriage certificate gives Henry MASTERMAN's age as 22, but he was in fact only 21 - he celebrated his twenty-second birthday only two weeks before Effie was born. Mary Elizabeth CASEY is also said to be 22 at the time of the marriage, but she was in fact 23, having been born on 12 December 1883.
Mary Elizabeth was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church (at St. Aloysius, Hebburn), whereas the MASTERMAN family were staunch Methodists. It is interesting to speculate how and where Mary Elizabeth and Henry met, and what his family felt about his marriage. All five children born to Henry and Mary Elizabeth MASTERMAN were brought up in the Methodist tradition, and their paternal grandfather, Michael Bell MASTERMAN, was active in that church, organising the Easter Parades for schoolchildren.
Henry MASTERMAN died at the early age of fifty in 1935, and Mary Elizabeth (Casey) MASTERMAN at the age of sixty-one in 1944.
We know that Mary Elizabeth CASEY was brought up by her maternal grandmother, Mary Ann TOMBLING (whose name has come down to us as 'Granny Anthony') and who was still active in the Roman Catholic Church when she was an old woman, living in Shieldfield, Newcastle.
The ANTHONY family had moved from Blakeney, in Norfolk, to South Shields some time in the 1870s. A branch of the MASTERMAN family, originally from Yorkshire, moved to Monkwearmouth, near Sunderland in the 18th century, and then to the Byker area of Newcastle sometime in the 1840s.
We have traced two marriages contracted by Mary Elizabeth's mother Sarah Ann ANTHONY, and it is likely that she married three times. Her first husband, Mary Elizabeth's father, John CASEY, died in 1884 at the early age of thirty. Sarah married a man called William CLARK two years later, and we are still working on tracing his death and the record of her third marriage. Mary Elizabeth Casey had a half brother, John Edward ANTHONY. See THE ANTHONY DESCENT
MASTERMAN FAMILY BACKGROUND | ||||
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According to the International General Index, the great preponderance of MASTERMAN names is in Yorkshire. Some time late in the sixteenth or early in the seventeenth century, some members of that family moved north and spread across the county of Durham right up to the banks of the Tyne. MASTERMAN families settled in the city of Durham itself (first record of the name 1579) , at South Shields and Jarrow (1580) , at Sunderland (1583) and around Gateshead (1635). As mentioned above, the birth of two of the children of our earliest known ancestor, John MASTERMAN, at Monkwearmouth inclines me to believe that John himself belonged to a branch that settled there. There has however been a suggestion that John MASTERMAN was born at South Shields. Certainly there was a large family living there in the eighteenth century and there was a son called John, born in 1787. Again, I set out below a short family tree. 
The Thomas MASTERMAN who married Mary HILL in 1741, however was a 'gentleman'. He died in 1782, and a notice in the Newcastle Courant appeared as follows:-
Similarly, when William MASTERMAN married Ann FAIRLES the following notice appeared in theNewcastle Courant:
It is difficult to accept that the son of these well-established and probably quite well-off seafaring people became a potter, but of course it is possible. Only when we find our John MASTERMAN on a Census return, and discover his place of birth can we know. |
A SHORT NOTE ON MONKWEARMOUTH CHURCH
The church at which Thomas MASTERMAN was baptised was of ancient foundation: an Abbey was built there in 674 by Benedict Biscop and dedicated to St. Peter. Bede studied there. The building was burnt by the Danes in 793, and the stones of the tower show signs of the conflagration to this day. When William the Conqueror made his incursion to subdue the rebellious north, the monastery suffered again, and again at the dissolution under Henry the Eighth.
Over the centuries, the ancient building fell into a ruinous state. It was completely restored in 1875, and now the only parts of the original Saxon building that remain are the tower, part of the chancel and the north door. The earliest MASTERMAN burial found in the incomplete registers was in 1799, when a William MASTERMAN aged 38, of Custom House, Sunderland was buried on August 23 of that year - he was probably the eldest son of Thomas and Margaret MASTERMAN, born in 1761 - see see the family tree above.
NOTES: - 1851 Census HO/l07/2407 Folios 420 and 421 (Cut Bank)
1851 Census HO 107/2408 Folio 175 (Faud)
1861 Census RG 09/3832 Folio 4 and RG 09/3845 Folio 20
1871 Census RG 10/5125 Folio 11 and 24
1881 Census RG 11/5085 Folios 8 and 9 and RG 11/5100 Folio 41
1891 Census RG 12/4214 Folio 21
1901 Census RG 13/4806 Folio 105
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