Mastertown (Masterton), Charles (1679–1750), presbyterian minister and moderator, was born 23 March 1679 in Scotland, probably in Linlithgowshire, of unknown parents, though he was the nephew of Lady Huggonfield. He was educated at Edinburgh University, graduating MA (28 June 1697, as ‘Carolus Masterton’). He was licensed by Linlithgow presbytery (1703) and presented himself to the general synod of Ulster at Antrim (1 June 1703). Accepting a call from the congregation of Connor, near Ballymena, Co. Antrim, he was ordained there (17 May 1704). He ran a school at Connor and remained as minister for nineteen years.
He subsequently became involved in the ‘subscription’ controversy of the 1720s. ‘New Light’ Presbyterians, most notably the Rev. John Abernethy (qv), upheld a minister's liberty in matters of ‘man-made’ doctrine while remaining within presbyterianism. While the Belfast Society professed to believe the doctrines of the Westminster confession, their member's views on the Trinity and other tenets of the church were suspect, and they were accused of unitarianism. The installation of a non-subscriber to the First Congregation of Belfast led many orthodox members to withdraw. They sought to erect a new church adjourning the old, and – their request granted – Third Belfast (later Rosemary St. congregation), was built with generous assistance from Scotland. The congregation, with the advice and consent of the synod, called Mastertown to the pastorate (October 1722). His installation was, however, delayed by competing factions of the congregation of Connor. He was finally installed by the Belfast presbytery (20 February 1723), while his successor at Connor was not ordained for another year (18 March 1724) as the congregation insisted that Mastertown preside instead of a non-subscriber.
In the midst of the controversy, Mastertown was elected moderator of the general synod at Dungannon (1723), where he presided over the debates which resulted in a victory for the orthodox subscribers and the beginning of the eventual exclusion of the non-subscribers from the synod. Mastertown was also a significant and eloquent defender of orthodoxy in the pamphlet debates on subscription. He wrote several pieces against Abernethy, most notably his Apology for the northern presbyterians (Glasgow, 1723) and Christian liberty founded on gospel truth (Belfast, 1725). His best-known work, The doctrine of the holy trinity (Belfast, 1728), generated in part by these debates, was still in print a century later. While his wife's name is unknown, his daughter Susan married (1725) John Poaug; the Rev. Hope Mastertown Waddell (1829–59), an Irish missionary to Jamaica and Old Calabar, was a descendant. Mastertown retired in 1746, having become incapacitated the previous year, and died on 15 July 1750.