John's mother, Elizabeth, died in 1846 and his father, Joseph, had re-married by 1851 to Mary Baydon. Therefore, it may well have been a difficult childhood for John with his mother dying while he was a teenager.

John has many occupations in his time. He was an agricultural labourer at the age of 23 in the 1851 census. Most of the village of Willoughby were engaged in this sort of employment at the time. Within the next few years John moves to Barnsley and when he married Lucy Woffenden in 1856 his occupation was labourer. By the time of the birth of his third child he was a railway repairer. By the time of the 1881 and 1891 censuses he was described as a coal miner.

The 1901 census records John as a widower living with his son's wife's parents. John's son, Thomas (b.1872), married Sarah Elizabeth K. Mass, and in 1901 John is living under William Mass's roof at 5 Summer Street, Barnsley. Also present are Thomas and Sarah and their two sons (Harold and Norman). The next-door house (No.3 Summer Street) is occupied by Arthur Crossland and his family. Arthur is a distant non-blood relation to John. He is John's daughter-in-law's uncle! John's son (John Masters (b.1864) married Ann Robinson in 1889 and Arthur is Ann's uncle (her mother's brother).

John died at 35 Fitzwilliam Street, Barnsley, on 6 October, 1912 of "cerebral softening and exhaustion".

Cerebral Softening is described in Webster's Dictionary as

Appleton's 1904 dictioanry describes Exhaustion as

The informant of the death was his son, Thomas Masters, also of 35 Fitzwilliam Street, Barnsley. It is therefore likely that John lived with his son in his later years. His occupation is listed here as "formerly a labourer in a colliery" which ties up a couple of the occupations listed throughout his lifetime.