William Williams Masters

Lifespan: 28 March 1838 – 28 March 1927

Branch: Masters (second child of Charles & Martha Masters)

Role: Son of Charles and Martha Masters; emigrated to New Zealand where he lived to 89

Biography

William Williams Masters was born 28th March 1838 in Warwickshire, England, the second child of Charles Masters (1809–1866) and Martha Williams Masters (1814–1896). He emigrated to South Australia with his family on the Templar, arriving 24th November 1845.

William later emigrated to New Zealand, settling at Port Chalmers on the Otago coast. He married there in 1870, and died at Port Chalmers on 28th March 1927, aged 89.

Family

Relation	Name
Father	Charles Masters (1809–1866)
Mother	Martha Williams Masters (1814–1896)
Spouse	Barbara Wishart (1843–1931) — married New Zealand, 1870

Marriage and children — previously missing from the vault

Added and verified 20 Oct 2026 against NZ BDM historical records directly (bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz), not against a contributed transcription. None of this was in the vault before today: a search for Barbara Wishart, Jemima Ellen and Mary Annie returned zero profiles. It is William's own family, in his own stated place of settlement, and it was absent entirely.

• Marriage: NZ BDM 1870/4680 — Barbara Wishart / William Masters ✓ (register-read, 1 match)
• William's death: NZ BDM 1927/4906 — Masters, William Williams, age 89Y ✓
• Barbara's death: NZ BDM 1931/4799 — Masters, Barbara, age 88Y ✓
• Children — all six confirmed, each with mother "Barbara (Wishart)" and father "William Williams" on the register:

- 1871/40339 — Masters, Jessie Mariane
- 1872/40214 — Masters, Caroline
- 1873/35871 — Masters, William James
- 1876/9445 — Masters, Jemima Ellen
- 1878/12131 — Masters, Mary Annie
- 1880/12445 — Masters, Emma Jane

Joint headstone inscription (Port Chalmers New Cemetery, Block DB, Plot 24):

To the Memory of / Our Beloved Parents / WILLIAM W and BARBARA MASTERS / Died March 28th 1927 — Died June 15th 1931 / Aged 89 Years — Aged 88 Years / Until the day break / And the shadows flee away

Two independent sources agree on both deaths. The register gives 89Y and 88Y; the headstone says "Aged 89 Years" and "Aged 88 Years". That is a genuine two-source confirmation, not one source repeated.

One search lesson worth keeping: Jemima Ellen (1876/9445) did not appear in a surname+year search for 1876 — the index missed her that way and only the registration number found her. A null result from a name search is not evidence of an absent record.

Note on the children's profiles: these six now have verified birth registrations, but nothing else — no marriages, deaths or descendants. Don't create profiles for them until there is more than a birth entry; a name and a registration number is a stub, not a biography.

Parents-conflict check (20 Oct 2026)

A board card was raised claiming the vault and Find A Grave disagreed on this man's parents. They do not. The Find A Grave memorial lists, under "Family Members → Parents":

• Charles Masters, 1809–1866
• Martha Williams Masters, 1814–1896

Those are the same two people this profile names. There is no conflict, and nothing was changed in the parentage. The card was raised on a comparison that did not hold; the reading above is the page's own text, live-read today, not a summary of it.

Sources

• Source: From the Borders to the Bush (Telfer, 2017) — family birth register (death date corrected)
• Source: FindAGrave Memorial 204994992 — William Williams Masters (1838–1927), Port Chalmers, New Zealand — https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/204994992 — accessed 10 Aug 2026