William Foster (bishop)

Lord Bishop William Foster (attributed to Hugh Douglas Hamilton).

William Foster, D.D. (3 July 1744 – November 1797) was a Church of Ireland bishop.

The younger son of Anthony Foster, he was chaplain to the Irish House of Commons (1780–89), then successively Bishop of Cork and Ross (1789–1790), Bishop of Kilmore (1790–1796) and Bishop of Clogher (1796–1797).^[1]

Family

Catherina-Letitia, Mrs. William Foster (d.1814) (attributed to Hugh Douglas Hamilton).

He was younger brother of John Foster, 1st Baron Oriel.

Foster married Catharina-Letitia (died 23 November 1814) daughter of Rev. Dr. Henry Leslie (1719–1803), LLD, of Ballibay, co. Monaghan. (Leslie, a scion of the family of the Earl of Rothes, was Prebend of Tullycorbet and then of Tandragee. His father, Rev. Peter Leslie, was rector of Ahoghill, and had married Jane, daughter of Most Rev. Dr. Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Meath). They had two sons, including John Leslie Foster, and five daughters. He was father-in-law of Jerome, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio. He was grandfather of Sir William Foster Stawell, William Fane De Salis and John Warren, 3rd Baron de Tabley.

One of his first cousins married Elizabeth Hervey, aka Lady Bess Foster, aka Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire.

References