John Thomas Martin was born in Baltimore Md, on October 2nd, 1816, the son of John and Maria (McConkey) Martin, both natives of Baltimore. His father was a well known build of that city, and a private in a Maryland regiment during he war of 1812. He is descended from Thomas Martin, gentleman, born in 1609 in Hertfordshire, England, who in 1633, emigrated to the province of Maryland in the Ark and Dove, with his wife Elizabeth Day, also form Hertfordshire. The family was an oldone, of some fohte distinction in England, whose sons before and after this emigration were named Thomas, and whose daughters were called Mary. Thomas Martin was granted a deed of land by Charles Calvert, comprising the whole of Island Creek Neck, Talbot county, on which he built a house with bricks brought from England, calling the place Hampden, after the famous Puritan leader John Hampden. The house still stands, and was in the possession of hte family until 1866.

John T. Martin was educated at St. mary's School in Baltimore, and then entered the mercantile house of Bickett & Pearce. In 1836 he went to St. Lois, where, with his brother, he engaged in the sale of clothing, Martin & Co. soon being classed among the representative firms. He retired in 1855, and removed to Brooklyn, N.Y., where he continued to reside until 1895. He increased his weath considerably during the civil war by filling contracts for army clothing. He became a director in the Brooklyn Trust company, the Home Life Insurance Company, the Long Island Loan and Trust Company, and the Nassau National Bank, and a member of several syndicates formed for the reorganization of railway companies. The improvement of the city water-front was one of the many public meaures that were aided by hm; the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute is indebeted tohim as one of its founders and its first treasurer; and the Mercantile Library, also, is indebted tohim as one of its directors. His membershipin the Long Island Historical Society and similiar organizations, his fine art gallery, his large charities, testified to the broadness of his mind. He was trisde married: first to Priscilla Spence of Lexington, Ky. who bore him five children; second to Jane Amelia, daugther of Robert Barkley of New York City, who surivived him. Mr. Martin died in New York City, April 10th, 1897, leaving a large fortune.