John Foster

John Foster (1792–1875) was the eldest son of a Yorkshire farmer and landowner who came to Tasmania as a free settler in 1823, with his widowed mother, Jane, and youngest brother, Henry. The family received grants of land near Campbell Town where they became successful farmers. Foster later expanded his business interests by acquiring landholdings in Victoria, by trading goods he produced and by becoming a shipowner. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1836 and, between 1866 and 1874, he represented Huon electoral division on the Tasmanian Legislative Council

Early years John Foster was the eldest son of John Foster (1758–1816), a farmer and landowner of Armitstead Hall, Settle, Yorkshire, England, and his wife Jane, née Dowbiggin. Armitstead Hall was a spacious home at the centre of an estate of about 370 acres. Foster was educated at Heath School, Halifax, and Kemplay's Academy, Leeds with the expectation that he would follow his father to manage the family's farm and other landholdings. However, 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.

Adding to those pressures was the need to establish the legal career of Foster's younger brother William (1794-1866), who had studied at Cambridge and was, by then in London. William Foster became Solicitor General for New South Wales in 1827 and pursued a legal and political career in Sydney until 1854.

Foster's youngest brother, Henry (1809–1876), was much younger and therefore still living with his mother and eldest brother. Faced with the reality that the family estate in Yorkshire was uneconomic, Foster sought other options for his future, including employment, but finally chose emigration to Tasmania in 1822.

Public service

Foster was appointed a Justice in of the Peace in 1836 and became police magistrate for the Sorell and Prosser River districts. In 1868 he was elected to represent the Huon district in the Legislative Council and served until 1874. Subsequent generations of the Foster family continued to prosper and, at the beginning of the 21st century, one of his descendants was listed among Australia's 200 wealthiest citizens.

One of Foster's grandsons, Francis Foster, served as member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly between 1937 and 1941.