17
« on: Sunday 23 January 22 20:01 GMT (UK) »
I've hit a bit of a brick wall regarding my 3x GG, William Foster in that I know a hell of a lot about him except one key thing, where his wealth came from. Or at least where the money for his initial investments came from.
William was born 1816 in Witham to John and Martha Foster. John was a cordwainer at least from 1814 (the earliest mention of his occupation from a baptism of his daughter) and was in Witham until some time in the 1830's. In 1841 he is in Rayleigh and he dies in 1850.
As a cordwainer I wouldn't imagine he was particularly wealthy. Not necessarily poor but not the kind of wealth that would explain his son's success. John was born in Coggeshall 09/01/1784 and it looks like his family were in Coggeshall from around 1690/1700. As I only have parish records to go by I don't know what his parents or grandparents did for a living. I do know that of his brothers and sisters that survived, one was a blacksmith and another was a cordwainer as well. So I'm guessing that the family had probably been in that trade for a few generations.
So there is nothing to say wealth here. This is why I can't understand how William became so wealthy and seemingly started to amass his fortune very early on. By today's standards he would have been a millionaire and owned many farms, businesses, houses, shops and held every office in the town of Leigh except that of mayor.
As I say, William was born 1816 but the very first record I can find for him, other than his baptism, is in 1840, aged 26, when his 'large fine sailing boat, the Morning Star' is wrecked in a hurricane. Clearly he's already has enough money to own such a vessel. Shortly after this, he owns at least 3 pubs, all the toll roads in the Rochford One Hundred, becomes a coal merchant, is elected director of the Witham Permanent Building Society, owns most of the farms on Canvey Island etc etc etc
What I'm trying to work out is how on Earth the son of a shoemaker becomes so wealthy so quickly. Clearly he had a head for business which presumably meant he was well educated and certainly he was extremely well spoken and intelligent. So how would a shoemaker afford to send his son to a school like that? I can't work out whether John, the father, had made some money in order to set he son up in business or whether William essentially struck gold on something.
William was also one of 8 children, at least 5 of whom survived. One would also enter the pub trade, another would marry someone in the pub trade but none came anywhere near close to the success of William.
Can anyone think of records or things I could search for that might shed some more light on either the life of his father or on William between his birth and 1840
I've tried the British Newspaper Archive, the ERO (searching for him and the house he built), the National Archives. I've tried to find trade directories and post office directories but none I've found are early enough and whilst William is mentioned many times, I've only found one or two in later life of his father.
Show Posts
)