Welcome to the Cook Islands Herald

CI Times Weekly | Current Issue 262 | 04 August 2008

The Masters of Walcote, Leicestershire

The colourful tales about Marsters has been the source of endless speculation ever since he first voyaged to Palmerston Island to live in connubial bliss with his three wives and their many children.
The fascination with this larger than life man applied not only to outsiders but also to his own descendants of whom the book writer, Maureen Marama Hilyard is one.
It was known that William Marsters died in 1899 on Palmerston Island but his English origins have remained a mystery and Maureen was determined to penetrate beyond the myths and embellishments to trace his background before coming to the South Seas.
It did not help matters that family records were destroyed in the hurricane of 1926 dubbed the ‘Big One’ – in the year that her mother was born - and many important documents were lost.
Family folklore was that ‘Father’ as the patriarch was called was born in 1821 to John and Ann Marsters in Gloucestershire and brought up by his grandmother in Birmingham or Leicestershire and ran away to sea at the age of eighteen.
Once on a mission, Maureen became unstoppable and continued her research into her great grandfather for several years with many a blank before a friend helping with her project found reference to Ann and Joel Masters who had a son called Richard born in 1831.
Maureen found a couple of discrepancies including date of birth believed to be 1821 and a different spelling of the surname ‘Marsters’ whereas the surname ‘Masters’ was fairly common.
The book shows some glimpses into everyday life under the strict rule of ‘Father’ as the patriarch was known which sounded a little like boot campt rising at 3am to attend prayer meetings, followed by breakfast and then setting off at 6am to another islet to work for the day. After lunch at noon and perhaps a siesta for ‘Father’ it was time for sports with the patriarch as the umpire!
There are also writings by Burland who visited Palmerston Islands in 1960 and outlined the adventures of Marsters and his two male companions, William Greig and George Bicknell.
The next part is essentially a history of his extended family of origin and their life in England oblivious of the life that their runaway relative was leading in the Pacific.
In the final chapter, Maureen has included an excerpt by the Thomas Trood, British Vice Consul at Apia Samoa originally published in 1921 that recounts Trood’s adventures in the pearl shelling industry from 1858. It is especially of interest because it contains information about ‘a man called William Marsters’ who is said to know of a ‘new shell island’. This created excitement because at the time, pearl shells fetched 120 pounds sterling per ton in Paris and the prospect of making a small fortune in a short time proved very tempting to Trood. Unfortunately, the venture was a disaster from beginning to end with Marsters and the men quarreled over the outcome and Marsters left to settle permanently on Palmerston Island.
If you are fascinated by romantic tales of old and all the more exciting because it is non-fiction, then this book is a must have.
Enquiries to Maureen Hilyard on 54641.

Headlines : Times 262 04 August 2008
-Approvals by Environment Authority may be illegal
- Rosie – CISNOC’S new Secretary General
- The PDL takeover - what can we expect?
- Research Association to hold second Conference
- The power of positive thinking