William Foster (New South Wales politician)

William Foster (1794-1866) was an Australian lawyer and politician who was Solicitor General for New South Wales and member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.[1]

William Foster
Born(1794-02-28)February 28, 1794
Settle, Yorkshire, England
DiedFebruary 2, 1866(1866-02-02) (aged 71)
Brighton, Sussex, England
NationalityEnglish
Occupation
  • Lawyer
  • Judge
  • Solicitor General for New South Wales
OfficeMember of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Termin office 1843–1845
Spouse(s)
  • Mary Anne Green
  • Angelina Job
Children5
Parents
  • John Foster (father)
  • Jane Foster née Dowbiggin (mother)

Early Years

Foster was the son of John Foster (1758–1816), a farmer and landowner of Armitstead Hall, Settle, Yorkshire, England, and his wife Jane, née Dowbiggin. He was the younger brother of John Foster (1792-1875). Both John and William studied as boarders at Heath School in Halifax; William then moved on to study at Cambridge University before qualifying as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London.

William Foster would have probably pursued a career in England but his father's death, at the age of 57, occurred just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and coincided with a severe decline in England's rural economy that depressed product and land values for over a decade. Debts had previously been incurred in efforts to expand and develop the family estate but interest payments, together with falling returns from produce and difficulty in collecting rent from tenants, placed major pressures on the family's finances. For William, pressures were increased by the needs of establishing himself in his career as a lawyer.[2][3]

New South Wales

In 1827, one of Foster's colleagues, Alexander Baxter, was offered the position of Attorney General of New South Wales. Foster decided to travel with him and migrated to Sydney, intending to continue his career as a barrister but, within a month, he was appointed to the newly created post of Solicitor General.[4] Baxter was a dashing figure but totally incompetent as a lawyer and relied heavily on Foster to perform his duties.[5]

In 1829 Foster was appointed chairman of the Courts of Quarter Sessions.[6][7]

In 1838 Foster, along with William à Beckett and Richard Windeyer, defended the 11 colonists charged with murder in relation to the Myall Creek massacre.[8][9] From 1843 to 1845 he was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.[10]

William's brother, John, had already migrated to Tasmania in 1822, together with their mother and youngest brother, Henry. John was also a politician and was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council as the member for Huon from 1868 to 1874.[11]

Private Life

Foster married Mary Anne Green in 1817. They had four children. After Mary Anne died in 1856, he married Angelina Job, with whom he had a son, born in England in 1859.

Return to England

Foster returned to England in 1854 and settled in Brighton but his first wife, Mary Anne died only two years later and he remarried in 1858. After what appears to have been a happy retirement, Foster died at his home in Brighton on 2 February 1866, aged 72.[12]

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References
  1. "Foster, William (1794–1866)". People Australia. National Centre of Biography at Australian National University. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  2. Foster, Patricia. "Foster, John (1792–1875)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  3. Glover, Margaret (3 February 1999). "Where the Two Rivers Meet". Paper read at the "Colonial Eye" Conference, University of Tasmania.
  4. "William Foster Esq. sworn in as Solicitor General". The Sydney Gazette And New South Wales Advertiser. 3 September 1827. p. 2. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Baxter, Alexander Macduff (1798–1836)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  6. "William Foster Esq. declared elected as Chairman of the Courts of Quarter Sessions". The Sydney Gazette And New South Wales Advertiser. 3 November 1829. p. 1. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Our portrait gallery: William Foster". Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1853 - 1872). 29 August 1853. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  8. Reece, RHW (1974). Aborigines and Colonists: Aborigines and Colonial Society in New South Wales in the 1830s and 1840s. Sydney University Press. p. 147. ISBN 9780424063508.
  9. Geoff, Lindsay (2007). "Aborigines, colonists and the law, 1838" (PDF). ForbesSociety.org.au. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  10. "Sir William Foster". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  11. Foster, P. "Foster, John (1792–1875)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  12. "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. 27 April 1866. p. 1. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via National Library of Australia.

 

New South Wales Legislative Council
New creation Member for Northumberland
June 1843 – October 1845		 Succeeded by
Henry Dangar
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