Thomas Foster was born in May 1849 in the hamlet of Friday Bridge on the outskirts of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire. He was one of the six children of Norfolk-born Thomas Foster senior (1822-1896) who was variously a farmer, railway worker and millwright’s assistant, and Susannah Batterham née Greeves (1823-1902).^1–7

Thomas junior moved from Wisbech to Lincoln some time around 1870 and married Hannah Cass Bassett there in 1876.⁷

Hannah was born in Lincoln in 1855; she was the eldest child of Edwin Bassett, a tailor originally from Shropshire, and Lincoln native Margaret L. Cass.^3,4,7 Hannah grew up on West Bight in uphill Lincoln;³ before her marriage to Thomas Foster she worked as a household servant at Mr Mantle’s school for choristers in Northgate (the forerunner of the current Minster School).^4,8

After their marriage Thomas worked as a house painter, and the couple moved to number 63 Burton Road in the city in about the year 1900.^5,6,9,10 They had seven children: Eliza, Louisa, Harry Edward, Fred*, Margaret, William Bassett**, and Jennie.^7,11

Thomas Foster died in Lincoln in June 1931 at the age of 82; his widow Hannah Foster in March 1941, aged 86.^7,11,12 They both received funerals at St Nicholas’ Church on Newport and were buried in plot D.310 in Newport Cemetery, along with their oldest daughter Eliza who died in 1965. Records show that there was a headstone but it has disappeared.¹²

*Fred Foster (1884-1957) was the father of John Thomas Foster (1909-1992).¹⁰

**William Bassett Foster became a Private in the 1/4th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, and fought in World War One. He was killed in the “useless slaughter of infantry” of the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt at Loos on 13th October 1915, aged 26, and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial in northern France as well as the city war memorial on Lincoln High Street.^13,14

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Acknowledgements

With thanks to the staff of the Crematorium Office of the City of Lincoln Council and the attendants of Newport Cemetery, Lincoln, for their help in finding the grave site. Thanks also to the Lincolnshire public library service and the Lincolnshire Archives.

⁂

References

1. “FreeReg” (database, FreeReg, http://www.freereg.org.uk/ : accessed 22 June 2016).
2. “1851 England Census” (digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ : accessed 7 ‎July ‎2015; citing Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851, The National Archives, Kew).
3. “1861 England Census” (digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ : accessed 7 ‎July ‎2015; citing Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861, The National Archives, Kew).
4. “1871 England Census” (digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ : accessed 7 ‎July ‎2015; citing Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, The National Archives, Kew).
5. “1881 England Census” (digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ : accessed 7 ‎July ‎2015; citing Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881, The National Archives, Kew).
6. “1891 England Census” (digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ : accessed 7 ‎July ‎2015; citing Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891, The National Archives, Kew).
7. “FreeBMD” (digital images, FreeBMD, http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ : accessed 29 March 2016; citing General Register Office, Southport).
8. Page, Anne, Of Choristers – ancient and modern, (http://www.ofchoristers.net/Chapters/Lincoln.htm : accessed 11 November 2014), “Lincoln, The Minster School”, 21 December 2004.
9. “1901 England Census” (digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ : accessed 7 ‎July ‎2015; citing Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901, The National Archives, Kew).
10. “1911 England Census” (digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ : accessed 7 ‎July 2015; citing Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911, The National Archives, Kew).
11. “Lincs to the Past” (digital images, Lincs to the Past, http://www.lincstothepast.com/ : accessed 11 November 2014).
12. City of Lincoln, burial record (Newport Cemetery, Lincoln), plot D.310.
13. Commonwealth War Graves Commission, “Find war dead” (digital images, CWGC, http://www.cwgc.org/ : accessed 11 November 2014).
14. City war memorial (High Street, Lincoln).

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Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). Version 1.0, updated 11th November 2014.