Charles Foster

Charles Forster/Foster, unsuccessful claimant for Lancaster estate in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, as owner-in-fee for 32 enslaved persons and tenant-for-life of 135 enslaved persons, under the will of his great-uncle Thomas Foster. Brother of Eliza Haworth (q.v.).

1. The case of Foster and other v Romney, heard 14/11/1809, ruled that under the will of Thomas Foster (dated 08/04/1762), the Elim, Waterford, Lancaster and Two-Mile Wood estates (as well as estates in England and Horse Savanna Pen in Jamaica) were left to his four nephews and their sons as tenants-for-life (rather than until failure of their issue). The will identifies Frederick William Foster as one of the four nephews; Charles Foster as the only son of another nephew Samuel Warren Foster, and Joseph Foster Barham as Thomas' brother.  John Frederick Foster ('an infant'), George Foster and Henry Foster are among the defendants although not separately identified in the report: the sequence of names suggests the latter two to be the children of a third nephew, John Foster.

2. Unsourced online family tree gives the marriage of Samuel Warren Foster and Elizabeth Cope Custos in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, 03/01/1774 and their children as Rev Charles, Eliza and Mary. www.familysearch.org gives the christening of Eliza and Mary, daughters of Samuel Warren Foster and Elizabeth, as 13/07/1775 and 23/12/1777 in St Elizabeth, Jamaica. No sign of a birth/christening for Charles Forster/Foster. The same online family tree gives Charles's birth in 1780 in Stratford-upon-Avon and his death in 1835 in Montreuil Seine-Saint-Denis, France.

T71/870 St Elizabeth claim no. 345 (Lancaster).

1. Edward Hyde East, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of the King's Bench (XI, London, J. Butterworth, 1810) pp. 594-611.

2. http://www.airgale.com.au/forster/d10.htm [accessed 28/05/2012].