Palmerston Island: History
Palmerston was recorded by Captain James Cook in 1774, but he did not land on the island until 13 April 1777. He found it uninhabited, though some ancient graves were discovered. Cook named the island after Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, then one of the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty. The ancient name of the island was supposedly Avarau, meaning "two hundred harbours". In 1863 William Marsters, a ship's carpenter and barrel maker, arrived on Palmerston from Manuae with two Polynesian wives. He added a third wife and sired a large family of some 23 children, whose descendants now inhabit Palmerston. Thus, Palmerston Island is the only island in the Cook Islands for which English is the native language.
Palmerston was annexed by the British Empire on 23 May 1891 and in 1892, the British Government granted William a 21-year lease which was extended until 1954. Palmerston came under New Zealand administration in 1901.
William Marsters, originally thought to have come from Leicestershire, England, is now believed to have come from Gloucestershire, which might explain why his descendants now spell the name "Marsters" due to the Gloucestershire accent. By the time his youngest daughter Titana Tangi died in 1973, there were over a thousand of Marsters' descendants living in Rarotonga and New Zealand.
Though only some 25 people remain on Palmerston, all of Marsters' descendants consider the island their ancestral home. In 1954, the Marsters family was granted full ownership of the island. Three branches of the family remain on Palmerston, each branch being descended from one of William's three wives, and marriage within a family group being prohibited. All three wives came from Tongareva and there are still many family links and common ancestors between these atolls.