John Leslie Foster,
FRS (c. 1781 – 10 July 1842) was an
Irish barrister, judge and
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) in the
United Kingdom Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...
.
In 1830 he was appointed a
Baron of the Court of Exchequer of Ireland.
He was the son of
William Foster, Bishop of Clogher (1744-1797) and nephew of
John Foster, 1st Baron Oriel. He was educated at
Trinity College Dublin and
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...
.
Early life
After his father's death while he was about sixteen, his uncle,
John Foster, oversaw his further education, encouraged him to travel and employed him (presumably part-time) as his private secretary (in an office for the loss of which he was later compensated on the
Union with Great Britain with an annuity of £10 5s).
Taking advantage of a respite in hostilities between Britain and France thanks to the
Treaty of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it s ...
, he visited Paris in April 1802 where he attended a levée, was presented to
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
and noted that the splendour of the court of the
Tuileries was "much greater than ever was the old court of France".
His travels continued later that year when he set out in July on a tour of Europe encompassing Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Prussia, the Black Sea and Constantinople before returning to Dublin in September 1803.
Family
On 9 August 1814 he married Letitia Vesey-Fitzgerald, daughter of
James Fitzgerald, with whom he had five sons and a daughter, including the Australian politician,
John Foster Vesey-Fitzgerald.
In the summer of 1814 he acquired his family seat at Rathescar, Co. Louth, an estate where his uncle,
John Foster had lived in the 1770s and where John Leslie Foster undertook substantial repairs and alterations.
Career
John Leslie Foster was called to the Bar in Ireland in 1803 and was sometime a member of
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincol ...
.
In 1804 he published an ''Essay on the Principles of Commercial Exchanges, particularly between England and Ireland''.
He was one of the Commissioners appointed in September 1809 to the commission for improving the Bogs of Ireland.
Between 1807 and 1812 he represented
Dublin University
The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Du ...
, having first contested the seat in 1806.
He returned to the bar in 1812, but in 1816 was brought back to Parliament at the instigation of the government as member for Sir Leonard Holmes's borough of
Yarmouth on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...
.
At the
1818 general election, he was elected for both
Lisburn
Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with ...
and
Armagh City. He chose to sit for the latter constituency and served from 1818 to 1820.
From April 1818 until its abolition in 1826, he was Counsel to the Commissioners of the Irish Board of Customs and Excise.
Between 1824 and 1830 he was the MP for
County Louth
County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of County Meath, M ...
, and from 1825 was a director of the
Drogheda Steam Packet Company. He also acted as Mayor of
Drogheda
Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...
during this period.
On 24 June 1824, he was appointed to the
Royal Commission ''for inquiring into the nature and extent of the Instruction afforded by the several Institutions in Ireland established for the purpose of Education'' where he served with the other Commissioners:
Thomas Frankland Lewis,
William Grant,
James Glassford
James Glassford (1771 – 1845) was a Scottish legal writer and traveller.
Life
He was son of John Glassford of Dougalston by his third wife, Lady Margaret Mackenzie, sixth daughter of George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie. Glassford was adm ...
and
Anthony Richard Blake
Anthony Richard Blake (1786–1849), was an Irish lawyer, administrator and 'backstairs Viceroy of Ireland'.
Blake, the second son of Martin Blake of Holly Park, Athenry, was a member of the Tribes of Galway. A granduncle was Anthony Blake, Ar ...
. In this office Foster is reported by the Roman Catholic politician and barrister,
Richard Lalor Sheil, to have taken the part of “a knight-errant against popery” whose “object was to bring out whatever was unfavourable to the Catholic Priesthood; while
is fellow CommissionerMr Blake (himself a Roman Catholic) justly endeavored to rectify the misconstructions of his brother inquirer”.
Co. Louth Election – 1826
At the Co. Louth Election in August 1826 John Leslie Foster was knocked down to second place in the two-seat constituency by Alexander Dawson, a candidate put up by
O’Connell's ascendant
Catholic Association.
After the turbulent election John Leslie complained to his sister that: ‘the priests attacked me in all their Chapels … they made it distinctly a matter of Eternal Damnation to vote for me & an atonement for Sin to vote against me’. The
Catholic Association had already gained success in
Co. Waterford and this election was a precursor to their further success two years later in
Co. Clare.
Catholic Emancipation
Although John Leslie Foster was (as he assured the House of Commons in February 1829) ‘no Orangeman’, he was a persistent opponent to Catholic Emancipation. His speech opposing
Henry Grattan's 1812 Catholic Relief Bill was published as a pamphlet in 1817. However, following the election of
O’Connell as MP for
Co. Clare in July 1828, it became clear to
Peel and the government that continued opposition was unsustainable. Foster was eventually brought round to support the Emancipation Bill once proper safeguards had been offered.
On 25 January 1829,
Lord Ellenborough,
Henry Goulburn,
J. C. Herries,
William Vesey-Fitzgerald,
Lord Lyndhurst
John Singleton Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst, (21 May 1772 – 12 October 1863) was a British lawyer and politician. He was three times Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.
Background and education
Lyndhurst was born in Boston, Massachusetts, ...
,
Lord Francis Leveson-Gower,
John Henry North, John Leslie Foster,
John Doherty and
George Dawson George Dawson may refer to:
Politicians
* George Dawson (Northern Ireland politician) (1961–2007), Northern Ireland politician
* George Walker Wesley Dawson (1858–1936), Canadian politician
* George Oscar Dawson (1825–1865), Georgia polit ...
(Peel's brother-in-law) met at Peel's to discuss the matter. If Emancipation was to be granted, a concession was needed and the
Forty-Shilling Freeholders' Bill was brought forward. Lord Ellenborough recorded that ‘Peel told us he had seen
ohnLeslie Foster who was for a settlement, but strongly against paying the Roman Catholic clergy. He will therefore support the
oman Catholic ReliefBill. … Foster
sconsulting with the cabinet how Catholic emancipation may best be brought about!’
On 30 March 1829, when the
1829 Roman Catholic Relief Bill received the Royal Assent, Foster's concession, the
Forty Shilling Freeholders’ Bill was also approved. This was the ‘security’ that John Leslie Foster, John Henry North and William Vesey Fitzgerald had helped to frame, but although intended to prevent ‘the freeholder from being the tool of the landlord, or the slave of the priest’, it turned out to be an ineffective and unpopular measure.
Court of Exchequer of Ireland
Foster did not stand at the 1830 general election as it had long been agreed by Peel and Leveson-Gower that, following the abolition of his post as Counsel to the Revenue in January 1828, his claims to promotion were ‘very much superior’ to any others and,
following his retirement from politics, John Leslie Foster was appointed as a
Baron of the Court of Exchequer of Ireland on 16 July 1830. He later moved to the
Court of Common Pleas and died while on circuit at Cavan on 10 July 1842.
He served as Treasurer of
King's Inns
The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environment ...
from 1832 to 1833 and from 1838 to 1839.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, John Leslie
1781 births
1842 deaths
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Tory MPs (pre-1834)
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dublin University
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Armagh constituencies (1801–1922)
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Louth constituencies (1801–1922)
UK MPs 1807–1812
UK MPs 1812–1818
UK MPs 1818–1820
UK MPs 1820–1826
UK MPs 1826–1830
UK MPs 1830–1831
Politicians from County Louth
Fellows of the Royal Society
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Tory members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Alumni of King's Inns