Sir Thomas FOSTER^[1]

1548 - 1612  (63 years)

• Name	Thomas FOSTER
  Prefix	Sir
  Born	10 Aug 1548	Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, England
  Gender	Male
  Occupation	Judge
  Died	18 May 1612	London, Middlesex, England
  Buried	Hunsdon Parish Churchyard, Hertfordshire, England
  Person ID	I34974	Main
  Last Modified	13 Aug 2017

  
  

  Father	Thomas FOSTER,   b. 1526, England ,   d. 11 Oct 1599, Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, England  (Age 73 years)
  Mother	Margret BROWNING,   b. Abt 1528, Chelmsford, Essex, England ,   d. 3 Apr 1625, Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, England  (Age ~ 97 years)
  Married	20 Jul 1545	Chelmsford, Essex, England
  Family ID	F12166	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Susanna FORSTER,   b. 1548, Northumberland, England ,   d. 3 Apr 1625, Whitechurch, London, England  (Age 77 years)
  Children	+ 1. Catherine FOSTER,   b. Abt 1558, England ,   d. ?
  Last Modified	25 Feb 2019
  Family ID	F12267	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Died - 18 May 1612 - London, Middlesex, England  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Notes

  Knight, one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, in the reign of James 1st. —— Dear Cousin, After right hearty commendations unto you, ye shall understand I have received your letter wherein you desire to know of your pedigree.  Your grandfather, as ye have learned, was descended out of the house of Etherstone - whether he was the elder, second, or third, or fourth brother – and fled the country of Northumberland. I assure you I can truly satisfy you therein. Your grandfather, called Roger Foster, was my great uncle.  His father was called Thomas Forster and his mother's name was Featherstonehaugh. His eldest son was called Thomas Forster, my great-grandfather. It happened that four of the said brethren had been at a-hunting and were riding homeward through a town called Newham. They and a company of Scottish Kerrs fell out and there began bloodshed and feuds which continued until there was but one Kerr living.  During this time my grandfather and yours and another brother of theirs called Nicholas Forster (mine being twenty years old, yours 17 years, and Nicholas, a child of 14) being a-hunting - were waited upon by one of the Kerrs and two of their alliance called Too and King.  They set upon the three brothers and were thought to have slain them at a place near Branton where a cross still stands.  Two were slain there and Kerr fled.  After the slaughter my grandfather fled to Ridsdale in the county because he was safe there and yours fled to southern parts. At my house near Alnwick, 17th April 1590, your loving cousin, John Forster."  This letter was written to Thomas Foster, later Judge Sir Thomas Foster, in Hertfordshire. —— John Forster himself was a strong and forceful man who never did anything by halves.  He was a hard-headed businessman who profited from Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and gained more wealth and influence by assisting the defeat of the northern uprisings in 1569–70.  He was then appointed Warden of the Middle Marches of the Border, a powerful and tough position which he held for thirty-seven years.  And he had wives and mistresses, legitimate and illegitimate children.  On his death at the grand old age of 85, he blew one third of his estate on a wildly expensive pre-arranged funeral feast.

  
  

• Sources

  [S106] FOSTER Genealogy, Being the Record of the Posterity of Reginald Foster, Frederick Clifton Pierce, (Press of W. B. Conkey Company, Chicago).