Francis Robert Chester Master

Lieutenant Francis Robert Chester Master was posted to the Moreton Bay penal station from May to November 1844 as part of the military detachment sent north to guard the convict inmates. He served another eight years in NSW, then returned to Moreton Bay in 1852 with his wife Emma Jane Macarthur, granddaughter of Governor Philip Gidley King. After holding various government positions -- including magistrate, Usher of the Black Rod, and District Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages -- Master died in Rockhampton in 1913.

Lieutenant Francis Robert Chester Master was posted to the Moreton Bay penal station from May to November 1844. He was born in Bristol, England to William Chester Master, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 3rd Fusilier Guards, and his wife Isabella Margaret Digby. After serving at Moreton Bay for six months, he returned to Sydney where he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Governor of NSW in 1848. In January 1852, Master married Emma Jane Macarthur (6th daughter of Hannibal Macarthur and Anna Maria King, daughter of Governor Philip Gidley King) at St John’s Anglican Church in Stroud, NSW.

The couple moved to Queensland where "Francis Robert Chester Master, Esquire, of Gladfield, Warwick" was appointed as a magistrate in April 1852. He became a founding member of the North Australian Jockey Club at Ipswich on 11 June 1852. From 1855, Master was secretary/treasurer of the Brisbane Cricket Club and a steward with the Brisbane Horse Racing Club. In June 1853 Master bought Mangula cattle station at Tenterfield, NSW and applied for permission for two German vinedressers to emigrate to Queensland to work on his property. Master's years of government appointments included Usher of the Black Rod to the Legislative Council of Queensland and the District Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Rockhampton, a post from which he retired in 1902. Francis Robert Chester Master died in Rockhampton in 1913 and is buried at the South Rockhampton Cemetery

The Master family's surname is recorded as Master, Chester Master and Chester-Master. Francis' brother, Charles Chester Master, also a Lieutenant in the 58th Regiment, died on 7 December 1847 aged 27 in New South Wales. Through his wife Emma Jane Macarthur, Francis was related to the Macarthur sisters who married into the Leslie family. His youngest daughter, Lillian Chester Master, born in Queensland in 1862, was a nurse at the Bristol Military Hospital in England during World War I. Her photograph appears in a Sydney Mail article dated 15 May 1918 featuring photographs of the many descendants of Philip Gidley King who served in World War I. (See link below.)

Biography based on research by Rod Pratt, Visiting Fellow, Harry Gentle Resource Centre. Additional research by Jan Richardson.

Archival Resources

Letter to Colonial Secretary

State Library of Queensland (SLQ), A2 Series, Reel A2.32, p. 365, F R Chester Master to Colonial Secretary, letter dated 27 Dec 1853, CS Ref No 54/2110.

List of Magistrates

SLQ, A2 Series, Reel A2.33, p. 177, J C Wickham, Police Office, Brisbane, List of Magistrates, 1 Oct 1855.

Birth Registration

Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Qld Reg BDM), 1854/BBP/804, Francis Egerton Chester Master, birth registration, 14 Feb 1853.

Birth Registration

Qld Reg BDM, 1856/B/118, Carteret Ernest Chester Master, birth registration, 26 Jul 1856.

Birth Registration

Qld Reg BDM, 1859/C/2074, Annie Chester Master, birth registration, 28 Mar 1859.

Birth Registration

Qld Reg BDM, 1862/B/1260, Lillian Emmeline Isabel Chester Master, birth registration, 4 Aug 1862.

Death Registration

Qld Reg BDM, 1859/C/780, Annie Master [sic], death registration, 29 Mar 1859.

Death Registration

Qld Reg BDM, 1913/C/3508, Francis Robert Chester-Master [sic], death registration, 21 Feb 1913.

Books

Genealogical Memoirs of the Families of Chester of Bristol, Barton Regis, London, and Almondsbury

Robert Chester Waters, 1881.
Published by Reeves and Turner, London. Digitised copy available via Google Books. See Chapter VII, pp. 94-98.

Newspapers

Military Promotions

Sydney Morning Herald
18 Apr 1843

Appointments

New South Wales Government Gazette
4 Jan 1848

Charles Chester Master

Sydney Morning Herald
26 Jan 1848

Family notices

Moreton Bay Courier
14 Feb 1852

Appointments

New South Wales Government Gazette
16 Apr 1852

Robbery

Moreton Bay Courier
10 Oct 1857

Miners Rights

New South Wales Government Gazette
13 May 1859

Editorial

Moreton Bay Courier
21 Feb 1860

Official notifications

Moreton Bay Courier
23 Feb 1860

Official notifications

North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser
6 Mar 1860

Official notifications

North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser
5 Feb 1861

Current Events

Telegraph (Brisbane)
28 Nov 1872

Real property transfer notice

Telegraph (Brisbane)
2 Jul 1888

Today, Tuesday, October 23

Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton)
23 Oct 1894

The Retrenchments

North Queensland Registrar
5 May 1902

Personal

Daily Mercury (Mackay)
25 Feb 1913

Births, marriages, and deaths

Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton)
28 Feb 1913

Queensland in 1847

Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette
7 Sep 1926

Links with the long ago

The Queenslander
3 Jul 1930

Personal news

Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton)
1 Jul 1915

Descendants of Capt. Gidley King, third governor of NSW, engaged in the Great War

Sydney Mail
15 May 1918

Online Resources

Find a Grave memorial of Francis Robert Chester Master
Find a Grave memorial of Emma Jane Chester Master (nee Macarthur)
Find a Grave memorial of Francis Egerton Chester Master
Find a Grave memorial of Lillian Emmeline Isabel Chester Master