Author: Masterton, Charles
Biography:
MASTERTON, Charles (fl 1811-32)
The most reliable evidence that has been found about Charles Masterton, Esq. comes from his publications. According to the preface to his first book, The Seducer (1811), dedicated to two personal friends unknown to history, he had composed several tragedies for the London stage but failed to find a manager interested in them; publication was his way of securing an audience. Most of his works are dated from residences in London. Amyntor had a chilly review in 1816 in which it was described as the work of a young but “unskilful” poet. Only one of seven titles achieved a second edition (Stern Resolve, 1837). The Tempest-song of 1817 is dedicated to “no one” because his parents are dead, he has no friends, and “my destiny’s to be ill-fated.” His origins are obscure. He might have been a Scot: there are several records for men of his name and age born there, ranging from lower working-class to gentry. If so, he was one of many Scots in the period who received a solid literary education and then went to London to seek their fortunes. He is not the Charles Masterton, born in Culross, who married in London in 1811 and was working as a clerk in the East India Office in 1824: that man died in 1826. He was most probably the one who secured a position as an assistant translator in the office of the Secretary of State 1825-1830, went out to Bolivia as British Vice-Consul in the late 1830s, and died there at Chuquisaca in 1846. Documents produced at probate in London in Dec. 1847 reveal that he had had two families simultaneously in London. To "Mrs. Anne Masterton" or--if she were no longer living--her two children he left two-thirds of his estate. To his son Edward or his mother "Mrs. Elizabeth Masterton" or--if both of them were dead--his widow Eliza (Lockwood) Masterton, he left the remaining one-third. No record of either marriage has been found. It is possible that he was born in Scotland about 1785, the illegitimate son of Charles Masterton of Auchlandskies, an army captain who died of consumption in 1789. (findmypast.com 10 Apr. 2023; ancestry.com 10 Apr. 2023; CR 4 [1816] 429-30; General Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners [1843] 2:498; information from Prof. Gordon Masterton; masterton.one-name-mwp1.net 20 Aug. 2025) HJ