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A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Masterman, Charles Henry

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1829045A Naval Biographical Dictionary — Masterman, Charles HenryWilliam Richard O'Byrne

MASTERMAN. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 9; h-p., 31.)

Charles Henry Masterman was born 20 Nov. 1791, at Chepstow, co. Monmouth. He is first-cousin of Commander Henry Marshall, R.N.; and has lost three brothers in the service of their country.

This officer entered the Navy, 21 May, 1807, as Sec.-cl. Vol., on board the Cambrian 40, Capt. Hon. Chas. Paget, lying at Portsmouth; and on becoming Midshipman, soon afterwards, of the Zebra bomb, Capt. Wm. Bowles, accompanied the expedition to Copenhagen, where he was for nearly two months employed with the in-shore squadron. In Nov. of the same year he rejoined Capt. Paget on board the Cambrian, commanded next by Capts. Rich. Budd Vincent and Fras. Wm. Fane. After serving in the Channel and Mediterranean, in that vessel and also in the Hind 28, Capts. R. B. Vincent and Geo. Miller Bligh, and Woolwich 44, Capt. Fras. Beaufort, he returned to England in May, 1809, and in the course of the next month was received into the Royal Oak 74, Capt. Lord Amelius Beauclerk, and Stately 64, bearing the flag in the Baltic of Rear-Admiral Thos. Bertie. In the latter ship, when commanded, in 1811, by Capt. Edw. Stirling Dickson, we find Mr. Masterman cooperating in the defence of Cadiz, and assisting in landing the troops previous to the battle of Barossa. From Aug. in that year until his return home in July, 1814, he again served with Capt. Bowles in the Aquilon and Ceres frigates, on the Baltic and South American stations. In the boats of the former vessel, commanded by Lieut. Sam. Sparshott, he aided in destroying a convoy off the Island of Rugen. On leaving the Ceres, he successively joined, on the Home and West India stations, the Nymphen 36, Capt. Matt. Smith, Montagu 74, Capt. Peter Heywood, Warrior 74, flagship of Rear-Admiral J. E. Douglas, Shark sloop, Capt. Alex. Campbell, and Drake 10, Capt. Gregory Grant. The Drake, of which vessel he had been constituted an acting and a confirmed Lieutenant 26 May and 14 July, 1815, he left in Sept. of that year. With the exception of a short time passed about 1825 in the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Hyperion 42, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye, he has not been since employed.

Lieut. Masterman is married, and has two sons living. His third son, Samuel, died at the Upper School, Greenwich, in 1839, aged 13.