John Foster of Bedford

Son of William Foster of Bedford, and with his brother Frederick William Foster co-heir to Dawkins otherwise Bogue and Eden estates.

1. Will of John Foster [of Brickhill in the parish] of St Peter Bedford proved 14/02/1832. He left his half share in the estates inherited from his father, together with the people and land since bought jointly with his brother, in trust for Arthur Fitzjohn Foster, his oldest son by his present wife. His estate at Bedford was committed under his marriage settlement to his wife Amelia and then his eldest son; he left another estate at Shelton [?] Hall to his daughter Margaret by his first marriage; and land known as Knotts Corner that he had bought from the Corporation of Bedford to his son 'Hugh Morgan' [sic].

2. Washington Irving, the American writer, met John Foster's family in Dresden in 1823, and appears to have courted Foster's daughter Emily. Irving subsequently visited the family at home in Bedford in 1824.

3. John Foster's son, Morgan Hugh Foster, became the General Manager of the Ottoman Bank; John Foster's grandson was the chess player Sir George Thomas.

1. PROB 11/1795/289.

2. Andrew Burstein, The Original Knickerbocker: the Life of Washington Irving (2008) pp. 172-178, in which John Foster is described as 'an English aristocrat'; Reichart, Walter A. "Washington Irving, the Fosters, and the Forsters." Modern Language Notes 50.1 (1935): 35-39.

3. Chess Notes, by Edward Winter http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter49.html [accessed 13/11/2017].