Augustus Foster

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Portrait by Christian Albrecht Jensen (1825).

Sir Augustus John Foster, 1st Baronet,

PC (1 or 4 December 1780 – 1 August 1848) was a British diplomat and politician. Born into a notable British family, Foster served in a variety of diplomatic functions in continental Europe and the United States
, interrupted by a short stint as a Member of Parliament. He wrote about his American experiences in Notes on the United States of America.

Early life and family

Foster was born in 1780, possibly in Ireland, and went on to study at Drogheda Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford. He enjoyed a comfortable social situation; his father was the Irish MP for Ennis, John Thomas Foster (d. 1796), first cousin of John Foster, 1st Baron Oriel and William Foster, and his mother Elizabeth Hervey, who would later go on to marry William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, was herself the daughter of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol. Augustus had one older brother, Frederick (1777–1853) and an elder sister Elizabeth (b. 1778), who died several days after birth, as well as two illegitimate half-siblings. Augustus's parents separated in 1781, at which time he and his brother remained in the care of his father.

On 18 March 1815, one year after his arrival in Denmark, he married Albina Jane Hobart.

Baroness Wentworth and wife of Lord Byron
). They would go on to have three sons:

Career

Between roughly 1802 and 1804 Foster served as the Secretary to British legation,

Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, and while there penned letters to President Madison and his cabinet protesting American incursions in Spanish West and East Florida.[4] He returned to Britain in 1812 with the outbreak of the War of 1812, where he was promptly elected by Cockermouth, England to the House of Commons
.

In 1814 he left for

British minister plenipotentiary
until 1824.

In 1822 he became a

King George IV (1825) and named Baronet of Glyde Court, Ardee (1831), a town in County Louth
, Ireland.

Later life

Ending his service in Turin and his career in the

British diplomatic service
in 1840, Foster began drafting his Notes on the United States of America.

Foster died in 1848 after cutting his throat at

Branksea Castle; he had suffered from delirium because of poor health, and his death was ruled as the result of temporary insanity. His Notes on the United States of America would be rediscovered in a cupboard of his family's home in Northern Ireland
in the 1930s, and published posthumously.

Ancestry

Works

References

External links

Footnotes

  1. Royal Warrant of Precedence) was issued and Albina and her sisters were each raised to the rank of an earl's daughter, as if their late father had himself succeeded to that dignity and title: "No. 18981". The London Gazette
    . 2 October 1832. p. 1.
  2. ^ The Peerage of the British Empire as at present existing... by Edmund Lodge, Esq, Norroy King of Arms, Second Edition, Saunders and Otley,Conduit Street, 1833.
  3. ^ Journal of Henry McClintock, transcribed and edited by Pádraig Ó Néill, Published by the County Louth Archeological and Historical Society, 2001.
  4. ^ Patrick, Rembert (1954). Florida Fiasco. Atlanta, GA: University of Georgia Press. pp. 61–62.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
British Minister to the United States

1811–1812 		Succeeded by
No representation due to the War of 1812
Preceded by
British Minister to Denmark

1814–1824 		Succeeded by
Henry Watkin Williams-Wynn
Preceded by
Minister at Turin

1824–1840 		Succeeded by
Ralph Abercromby
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Cockermouth
1812–1813
With: Viscount Lowther 		Succeeded by
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Glyde Court)
1831–1848 		Succeeded by
Frederick Foster
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