Edward Jarvis Foster (Snr)

Fourth Generation - b.1835 - d.1879 (aged 42)

Edward Jarvis FOSTER snr (great-grandfather x2) according to the Later Day Saints church records was baptized on 27 July 1836 at Deal in Kent and according to his ships discharge certificate he was born on 01 July 1835 at Deal in Kent and his marriage certificate confirms he married Mary Young on 16 Apr 1862 at the Westcliffe Parish Church Nr. Dover in Kent. Mary Young according to the Latter Day Saints church records was baptized on 23 December 1835 at Coldred in Kent.

Married to Mary YOUNG, in Westcliffe Kent on the 16th April 1862 and had the following children:

01 Mary Foster born Apr-Jun 1863 at Deal

02 Sarah Jane Foster born Jan-Mar 1865 at Deal

03 Annie Maria Foster born Jul-Sep 1866 at Deal

04 Edward Jarvis Foster jnr born 23 September 1867 at Deal (great-grandfather)

05 Richard John Foster born Jan-Mar 1869 at Deal

06 Ada Foster born Oct-Dec 1870 at Deal

07 Alice Maud Foster born Jul-Sep 1872 at Deal

Middle Street, Deal -

(by Dubris @ Flickr)

Edward J Foster snr as a young man was in the Royal Navy and we have his 1854-1855 Baltic Medal awarded to those that served with the naval deployment to the Baltic during the Crimean War. His discharge certificate describes him as being five feet five inches tall with blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion with a scar on his right hand. It appears he left the Royal Navy in about 1859 to become master of the Deal lugger ‘Mary Blane’. He was by all accounts one of the elite Deal boatmen, locally known as ‘rough-weather seaman or ‘dreadnoughts’. And we know from the book “Heroes of the Goodwin Sands” that he was a member of the crew on the first launch of the North Deal lifeboat the ‘Van Cook’ on 07 February 1865 to the rescue of the ‘Iron Crown’ a brig loaded with tea a valuable freight bound for London. He was also one of the heroes who rescued three men from the wreck of the Deal lugger ‘Reform’ on 16 January 1871 and in October 1862 he with others was instrumental in the rescue of the crew of the brig ‘Trio’. On 29 June 1859 he and the crew of the ‘Mary Blane’ caused quite a stir with the local authorities when they took it upon themselves to arrest a French fishing boat for fishing inside British waters. It appears he was also summoned to appear before the Board of Trade Inquiry at Ramsgate in Kent on the 22 May 1867 into the alleged plundering of the wreck ‘North’ on the Goodwin Sands on 30 August 1866. There is also evidence to suggest that he made the occasional trip across to France smuggling, to supplement his income.

We know from the census records that he lived for several years until his death in 1879 in Middle Street which would have then been a run-down and disreputable part of town and was probably the centre of the smuggling activities in Deal which even as late as 1876 was still a very rough area, beatings, stabbings, landlords robbing clients, drunks and half naked women in the streets were all quite common.

Mary Young 1833-1925.

Edward J Foster snr death certificate confirms he died at 122 Middle Street, Deal in Kent on 09 January 1879 aged 44 and his wife Mary continued living at Deal in Kent for another forty six years or so. Mary Foster’s (nee Young) death certificate confirms she died at 122 Sandown Road on 08th October 1926 aged 91.