Marten was the Founding Z of the Chapter of Felicity No 58.

Born on 15 April 1839, Arthur Robert Marten lived in Kidbrooke in Kent, and was a partner in the firm of Standing & Marten, formerly the Bourne Valley Pottery Company of Bourne Valley Wharf, Nine Elms, London, and in Poole, Dorset; a manufacturer of water pipes (see below).

He was initiated into the Lodge of Felicity in 1870 before very quickly being a Grand Steward in 1873 and elected Treasurer of his Board of Grand Stewards. He was installed as the Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Felicity on 18 May 1875, the meeting at which the four members of the Lodge of Unions No 166 joined to support the Lodge at what was a historic low in its membership, including fellow Chapter Founders Frederick Smith and James Ford.

He joined Grand Stewards Lodge in 1886, sometime after his year as a Steward but merited to approbation of his brethren despite this late start and was made Master of Ceremonies in 1895 and Senior Warden in 1899.

Marten was a keen operative craftsman in wood as well as a speculative one in stone. He carved and turned a wooden snuffbox which he donated to the Lodge in 1880.