Person:Hopestill Foster (5)

Hopestill Foster was the youngest of four known children, his father dying when Hopestill was almost ten. He was the only one of the four known to have survived until the emigration of his mother and maternal grandmother to New England on the Elizabeth in 1635. His future wife, and second cousin, Mary Bates, was also on that ship with her family. His father father's half brother Thomas Besbeech settled in Dorchester in 1635. His mother's first cousins Clement Bate and James Bate were also on the Elizabeth--the latter was Mary's father.

Hopestill's mother and grandmother were granted land "on the Neck" in Dorchester which he inherited. The three of them were admitted together to the Dorchester church in November 1639. He held numerous town offices over time, and was also a brewer--his inventory included hops, cider, a mash tub, and ownership in a cider mill.

1. ↑ Patience Foster, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011).

   aged 14 in 1635 [Hotten 68]; m. by 1640 Mary Bate (eldest known child born Dec 1640), daughter of James Bate.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Hopestill Foster, in Alicia Crane Williams. Early New England Families, 1641-1700. (New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013).

   Baptized Biddenton, Kent 30 Jul 1620 (citing TAG 80:26)
   Died 14/15 Oct 1676 Dorchester (Dorchester records say both 14th and 15th, inventory says 15th, stone says 14th)

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Boston (Massachusetts). Record Commissioners. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston: Containing Dorchester Births, Marriages, and Deaths to the End of 1825. (Boston, Massachusetts: Rockwell and Churchill, city printers, 1890)
   1:29.

   "Captain Hopestill Foster Died Oct^r. 15^th. [16]76."

4. ↑ Capt Hopestill Foster, in Find A Grave.