Admitted 23 May, 1707.
Second son of Michael Foster of Marlborough, Wiltshire, where he was born 16 Dec. 1689. Having been educated at Oxford he passed, to the Middle Temple and in due course was called to the Bar 15 May, 1713. He was made Recorder of Bristol in 1735, and in the same year published a pamphlet on Church Power, which attracted the notice of ecclesiastical lawyers. In the next year he became Serjeant-at-Law, and in 1745 one of the Judges of the King's Bench, with the honour of knighthood. In 1762 he published his Report of the Trial of the Rebels in 1746, in which he showed himself, in the words of Blackstone, "a very great master of the Crown law." He died on 7 Nov. 1763. His Life was written by his nephew, Michael Dodson (q.v.). The following is a complete list of his publications: A Letter of Advice to Protestant Dissenters (1720); An Examination of the Scheme of Church Power laid down in the Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani (1735); The Case of the King against Alex. Broadfoot (1758); Report of some Proceedings … for the trial of the Rebels in 1746 in the County of Surrey, and other Crown Cases (1762, 1776); Third Edition, with Discourses on a Few Branches of Crown Law (1792).
Admitted 6 April, 1832.
Only son of Peter le Neve Foster of Great Witchingham, Norfolk. He was educated at Norwich Grammar School and at Cambridge, where he graduated Thirty-eighth Wrangler. He was called to the Bar 29 Jan. 1836, and practised for some years as a Barrister, but in 1853 was appointed Secretary to the Society of Arts, an appointment he held till his death 21 Feb. 1879. He was actively associated with the organization of the Great Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, and was a constant contributor to scientific journals. He took an interest in the then new art of photography, and was one of the founders of the Photographic Society. He died 21 Feb, 1879.
Admitted 23 April, 1840.
Only son of John Foster of Westminster. Called to the Bar 30 Jan. 1846. He was Recorder of Warwick 1874. He became a Queen's Counsel and Bencher of the Inn in 1875. He was leading Counsel for the Crown in the trial of the notorious Charles Peace, the murderer, at Leeds in 1879, and his name is best known to lawyers as the joint author with Mr. Finlason (q.v.) of Reports at Nisi Prius (1860—1867). He also wrote a treatise on Shorthand (1838), a Review of the Law relating to Marriages within the Prohibited Degrees of Affinity (1847), and a treatise on the Writ of Scire Facias (1851). He was for some time the Times Commissioner in Ireland, whence he wrote numerous letters on the condition of the people and the political situation, to which Daniel O'Connell replied, which led to a correspondence of great vivacity. Mr. Foster's letters were reprinted from the Times in 1846.
Admitted 4 August, 1604.
He is entered in the Register as "William Fowler, Esq., Secretary to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth," but this must be an error for Queen Anne, wife of James VI., to whom he became Secretary in 1590, and with whom he came to
