The Royal Descents of the Fosters of Moulton and the Mathesons Of
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! ffHE ROYAL DESGENTS OF THE JLTON AND THE llWAni HpSONS OF SHINNESS » H^^^ti^ Gc 929.2 FSllf 11.34273 SENEAL.OGV COLLECTION PUBLIC Ill*n'il^l'ui*lmillll!i LIBRARY 3 1833 01241 2877 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center http://www.archive.org/details/royaldescentsoffOOfost THE ROYAL DESCENTS OF THE FOSTERS AND MATHESONS. THE LATE Mrs. THOMAS FOSTER Susannah Mary Hunnings. THE ROYAL DESCENTS OF THE FOSTERS OF MOULTON AND THE MATHESONS OF SHINNESS & LOCHALSH. COMPILED BY WILLIAM EDWARD FOSTER, F.S.A., HON. MEMBER OF THE SPALDING GENTLEMEN'S SOCIETY. LONDON: PHILLIMORE AND COMPANY, LIMITED, 121, CHANCERY LANE, 1912. PREFACE. FOSTER'S book is a splendid example of what can be done by any keen MR.genealogist who will really take the trouble and pains to work out the history of his paternal and maternal ancestors, ad infimtum. Most genealogists who are writing a family history confine their efforts to the pedigree of their paternal ancestors of one line only, and these are, in the majority of cases, persons unknown to history. The possession of a royal descent from the Kings of England, which many affect to despise, is, of course, very common. The Marquis of Ruvigny, in the introduction to his Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, computed that there are at least 50,000 persons living to-day who are descended from Edward III. The number of those who are descended from John, Henry III or Edward I, is, of course, very much greater. The value of a royal descent does not consist in the mere fact of being descended from such and such a King, but rather in the fact that every royal descent implies a descent from great warriors, eminent statesmen, knights of the garter, canonized saints, and makers of history—men whose tombs are to be found in our great fanes, and of whose doings we read in the pages of history. Surely it is a source of legitimate pride to a man to know that these great men of whom he reads and whose tombs he visits, were his ancestors, and it should spur him on to make an effort himself to imitate their deeds and make a mark in the world. In the present work, Mr. Foster has shewn how a descent from Henry III and Edward I brings to him, as his direct ancestors, such distinguished families as those of de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, Audley, Segrave, Mowbray, Despenser, Stafford, Welles, Fitzwilliam, Skipwith, Willoughby de Eresby, and the Champion Dymokes. He has confined himself, however, almost exclusively to those families which were connected with his native county, Lincoln- shire. Had he gone further afield, and given notes of ancestral families belonging to other counties, the work would have been extended indefinitely. It is only occasionally that a genealogist can be found who is sufficiently interested in the subject to work out the history of so many allied families as Mr. Foster has done in this book. It requires immense pains, almost an inspiration, to face the task. The mere work of collecting the materials about so many families must have been very laborious ; but in the generations to come his descendants will feel grateful to his memory for what he has done, and they will have a permanent record of all that could be ascertained with respect to their family and ancestry in the past. W.G.D.F. TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. THOMAS FOSTER Susannah Mary Hunnings, Throug?! whom The Fosters of Moulton Derive their Royal Descent. Born at Donington, qth January, 1819, Died at Moulton, i6th March, 1900. Thomas Foster, of Moulton,=Susannah Mary Hunnings, CO. Lincoln, died i885. married at Holbeacli, co. Lincoln, 1845. I William Edward Foster,=AIexandrina Macpherson Thomas Hawkesley= AnnieII..!• oster, Emily Mary Foster, Susannah Mary, F.S.A., born at Moul- Matheson. Capes. Ob. s.^. nowresiding now residing at ThomasCharles ton 1846, now residing at Moulton. Moulton. both died in at Aldershot. infancy. I I Thomas Matheson Foster, Hugh Matheson Foster, born at Aldershot, and bom at Aldershot, and now residing there. now residing there. CONTENTS. Illustration : Mrs. Thomas Foster Facing Title page Preface ... ... page V Introduction XI PART I—ROYAL DESCENTS OF THE FOSTER FAMILY. List of Families of which Pedigrees or Notes are Given : — X Part I continued. INTRODUCTION. Notes on The Foster Family of Dou^sby and Monlton, I mentioned the priceless value IN that the late Canon Maddison's Lincolnshire Pedigrees, published by the Harleian Society, is to e\'eryone, who takes an interest in the families of Lincolnshire. His book makes the study of the history of nearly all the families of the upper and middle classes, who made that county their home, a comparatively light task. I may frankly state that I, personally, could not have given the time which would have been necessary, to collect the material for compiling this book without the aid of the Canon's work. It mav be hoped that this effort to trace the Royal and other Ancestors of the Fosters may induce others to follow the example and trace the history of the very many Lincolnshire families who have Royal Descent. Those who have such a desire may be assured that there is plenty of material at hand for them to work on. Canon Maddison's, Canon Foster's, and the late Mr. Gibbons' books on the Wills in the Lincoln Registry alone, will give students a good start, and with The Heralds' Visitations, which have been published in The Genealogist, Gibbons' Notes on the 1634 Visitation, and'the Lincolnshire Pedigrees as their guides, they will make rapid progress. One often hears it stated that we are lacking in topographical books relating to Lincoln- it certainly is so the present time, shire ; this might have been true some years ago, but not at and there is plenty of material for others if the historian will only seek it. Let him go to Lincoln in the first instance, for the city is a mine of historic documents and books relating to the county, which are, day by day, being made more accessible to the student, who, when he has exhausted that mine, can continue his researches in London, at the British Museum, the Record Office and Somerset House. So far as I could, I have chiefly made use of Lincolnshire topographical books and records " for my materials, and I have treated all the families who were connected with the county of " mere and fen in greater detail than I have those families who had little or no interest in the county, but it must not be understood that Lincolnshire records and books have been solely relied on by me. Among books, I have made great use of the well-known quarterly, The Genealogist, and from its pages I have taken the various pedigrees from the Plea Rolls—these are most valuable to anyone wishing to learn anything of his family; Burke's and G.E.C.'s Peerages have been largely resorted to, and for the Matheson pedigrees I have made requisition on a large number of Scottish antiquarian publications. I trust the reader will realise that many of the pedigrees that are given are of considerable interest, for they clearly show, not only how the Royal Families of England and Scotland inter- married, but how the nobility of both kingdoms followed their example. Through these , Xll INTRODUCTION. intermarriages tlie well-known Highland family of Matheson not only have many ancestors in common with the South Lincolnshire family of Foster, but the Mathesons are themselves descended on the female side from a South Lincolnshire family—The Lords Wake, of Deeping; and the Fosters have as ancestors Tlie Earls of Buchan and the Earls Angus, the two premier Earls of Scotland. Furthermore the ancestors the two families have in common are numerous, including Henry III, King of England, and his Queen, Eleanor ; Edward I, King of England, and his two Queens, Eleanor of Castile, and Margaret of France ; Joan de Acre and her husband, Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester ; Edward III, Crouchback^son of Henry and his wife, Blanche ; Henry Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, and his wife, Maud Chaworth ; Eleanor Plantaganet and her husband, Richard Fitzalan ; besides King Robert Bruce of Scotland, and Hawise de Ouincy. The Rev. W. G. D. Fletclier, F.S.A., Vicar of Oxon, near Shrewsbury, the author of The History of the Newcomen Family and of works on Royal Descents, first drew my attention to the Royal Descent of the Fosters. This well-known antiquary, when he acknowledged the receipt of " a copy of Notes on the Foster Family, wrote : I am sorry your Royal Descent was not worked " out before your book was published, you might have included it in the book with your wife's. " It comes to you through the Ludlows, Dymokes, Tyrwhitts, Fitzwilliams and Wentworths, all " families of the first water." Mr. Fletcher soon afterwards sent me a pedigree, a copy of which I give, for I feel it is far better for an author, when writing an account of his oivn family, to quote as largely as he can from well-known experts, whose words carry weight, and not ask the reader to rely on his own statements only. Pedigree sent by the Rev. W. G. D. Fletcher, F.S.A. Henry III, King of England, i6-i27J.=^Eleanor, daughter of liaymond lierenger, Count of Provence. I Eleanor, daughter of=King Edward I,=Margaret, daughter of Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of=Blanche, daughter of Robert III, Ferdinand III 1272-1307.