William Mulford Martin was born on June 29, 1813, in Rahway, Union County, New Jersey.

He was a clergyman and educator. He attended the College of New Jersey, now Princeton (1833-1836), and graduated from the University of New York (B.A., 1837, M.A., 1840). He also studied at the Union Theological Seminary (1839-1841). He was the founder and first principal of the New York Classical and Mathematical College School at Brooklyn (1838-1848). He also served as principal of the Athenian Academy at Rahway, N.J. (1848-1852). He was ordained by the presbytery of Brooklyn in 1852 and became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Woodbridge, N.J. (1852-1863). He served during the Civil War as a chaplain under the auspices of the Christian Commission. While being a missionary of the Home Missionary Society, N.Y. (1864-1867), he built the churches at Columbia, California, Virginia, and Nevada. He was also a secretary of the Brooklyn Young Men's Christian Association (1868-1876). He was a professor of Christian work at the Brooklyn Lay College (1876-1878) and was connected with the Brooklyn Society for the Benefit of the Poor.

In 1836, he married Ann Elizabeth Parmenter (1819–1885). He died on September 4, 1898, in San Francisco, California.