Mary Foster

Not the same as Mary Foster or as Mary Foster

Biography

Extracted from An American Family History. “Mary Davis Foster.” < link >

Mary (Davis) Foster was born on May 20, 1699 in Groton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Her parents were Samuel and Anna Davis.

She married Moses Foster. Moses was born in 1692 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. His parents were Samuel Foster and Sarah Keyes.

He has been confused with Moses Foster who was born in 1697 in Ipswich.

Moses and Mary's children may have included:

1. Phoebe Foster (1716),
2. Samuel Foster (1718),
3. Esther Foster (1720),
4. Mary Foster (1722),
5. Sarah Foster (1724),
6. Martha Foster (1726, married John Bates),
7. Elizabeth Foster (1729),
8. Moses Foster, Jr. (1731, married Hannah Lee) (married Mary)
9. Jane Foster (1733),
10. Joseph Foster (1735),
11. Eunice Foster (1737) and
12. Anna Foster (1739, Nathan Melvin).

Littleton town records show that on March 4, 1716/17 Moses was obliged to pay to the minister.

On March 17, 1719/20 a petition was denied to be set off to Littleton that Moses and others signed.

On November 16, 1731, Samuel and Anna conveyed their possessions to Moses. Moses was to care for Samuel and Anna from that time on. There was no fixed understanding of the details which caused some problems later. In 1734 Samuel and Moses sued each other. The Court's decision was against Foster.

Disambiguation

Extracted from Brown-Snel Family Roots. “Which Moses Foster?” (May 5, 2018) < link >

From the above it will be seen that Pierce has assumed that Moses’ wife Mary, who died in Ashburnham on 11 Nov 1777, is Mary Blodgett, the second wife of Moses of Ipswich. However, this is impossible. Moses of Ipswich married his third wife, Ann Varney on 10 Dec. 1767. Pierce also has to assume that Moses “in his extreme old age” returned to Ipswich from Ashburnham, because Moses of Ipswich died in Ipswich on 27 Sep. 1785. But the records of Ashburnham state that Deacon Foster died in Ashburnham on 17 Oct. 1785 at the age of 94 years[23] (which is more in keeping with the 1692 birthdate of Moses of Chelmsford).