Foster, Augustus John, 1st Baronet, 1780-1848

Sir Augustus John Foster was born on December 4, 1780, likely in Ireland, to John Thomas Foster and Elizabeth Hervey. He was educated at Drogheda Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford. Foster served as the Secretary to British legation in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from around 1802 to 1804. In 1805 he was sent to the United States as the Secretary to legation and left in 1807 to go to Stockholm. In 1811, he was sent back to the United States as Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States and while there he protested to President Madison and his cabinet about American incursions into Spanish West and East Florida. He returned to Britain in 1812 with the outbreak of the War of 1812 where he was elected to the House of Commons by Cockermouth, England. In 1814, he went to Copenhagen where he served as British Minister Plenipotentiary until 1824, before heading to serve in the same capacity in Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia until 1840. He was knighted by King George IV in 1825 and named Baronet of Clyde Court, Ardee in 1831. While in Denmark, he married Albina Jane Hobart on March 18, 1815 and together they had three sons. Sir Augustus Foster died on August 1, 1848.

Mentioned in these documents

[Letter from Elizabeth Upshur Teackle to her husband, Littleton D. Teackle, January 31, 1807]

Letter from Elizabeth Upshur Teackle, written to her husband, Littleton D. Teackle from her father-in-laws house, Kegotank. She speaks about one of their enslaved people, Martha, a washerwoman, delivering a stillbirth baby. She brings up his recent contract to provide lumber for the building of the new U.S. Navy Yard. Their brother-in-law Charles Nicoll Bancker invited the John Teackle family to Baltimore as a change of scenery after the death of one of the Teackle sons, Henry. She asks if he has news about meeting the new British Ambassador and his wife, Anthony and Elizabeth Merry.