Ancestry of Thomas Fo(r)ster (*1617)
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Thomas Fo(r)ster x N.N. |
Robert and Elizabeth
Children: Robert, 1617 Thomas, and 8 more children.
Text from Wikipedia (March 2013), which itself draws
heavily on the "Dictionary of National Biography":
Foster was the youngest son of Sir Thomas Foster, a judge of the
common pleas in the time of James I. He was born in 1589, admitted a
member of the Inner Temple in 1604, and called to the bar in January
1610. He was reader in the autumn of 1631, and with ten others
received the degree of serjeant-at-law on 30 May 1636. On 27 January
1640 he succeeded Sir George Vernon as a justice of the Common Pleas
and was knighted.
Robert had his permanent residence in Battle, Sussex, England.
Further from Wikipedia:
He was an ardent royalist, is supposed to have defended ship money and
billeting of troops, and joined king Charles I of England at Oxford on
his retreat thither, but he was one of those judges for whose
continuance in office the British House of Commons petitioned in
1643. At Oxford he attempted without success to hold a Court of Common
Pleas. On 31 January 1643 he received the degree of D.C.L. He was one
of the judges who tried and condemned Captain Turpin in 1644, and
although the House of Commons ordered Serjeant Glanville, his
colleague in that case, to be impeached for high treason, Foster was
only removed, and with the four other judges of the Common Pleas
disabled from his office "as if dead", for adherence to the king. He
compounded for his estates by paying a large fine. After the death of
Charles I, Foster lived in retirement, and, being a deep black letter
lawyer, practiced in the Temple as a chamber counsel and
conveyancer. He had received on 14 October 1656 a license from Oliver
Cromwell and council to come to London on private business and stay
there, notwithstanding the late proclamation.
At the Restoration he was at once restored to the bench, 31 May 1660, and, having shown zeal on the trials of the regicides, was presently (21 October 1660) appointed to the chief-justiceship of the King's Bench, which had remained vacant for want of a suitable person to fill it. He dealt sternly with political prisoners. Many Fifth-monarchy men and the Quakers, John Crook,[1] Grey, Bolton, and Tonge, accused of a plot against the king's life, were tried by him, and in the case of Sir Harry Vane he not only browbeat the prisoner on the trial, but induced the king to sanction the execution against his inclination and word and the petition of both houses of parliament. On 1 July 1663 he tried Sir Charles Sedley for indecent behaviour, and "rebuked him severely". He died on circuit, 4 October 1663, and was buried under a tomb bearing a bust of him in robes, at Egham, Surrey.
Sir Robert is also mentioned in the diaries of Samuel Pepeys.
Data from Genealogy Foster-Barham and further sources as indicated.
(2017.03.19) created 2013.04.06