As a prominent member of Brooklyn society and the judiciary, and as a Democratic party member, Martin was acquainted with notable contemporaries of his such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Brooklyn banker Herbert Losee, and the Long Island oyster farmer and entrepreneur Royal Toner. Martin was a member of the Episcopalian church, and was related to the Methodist Episcopal minister Reverend Dr. William Wallace Martin of Nashville, Tennessee. Although he belonged to the Episcopalian church, Martin's second wife was a Roman Catholic. He had his youngest son Walter Martin baptized as an Episcopalian, but arranged for his school education in a Catholic school and then at the evangelical The Stony Brook School. He maintained friendly relationships with many Catholics, and in 1922 was a guest speaker at the Brooklyn chapter of the Knights of Columbus.