William Foster (bishop)

William Foster of Dunleer D.D. was a Bishop of the several parishes in the Church of Ireland.

Biography

The younger son of Anthony Foster, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and his first wife Elizabeth Burgh, he was chaplain to the Irish House of Commons, then successively Bishop of Cork and Ross, Bishop of Kilmore and Bishop of Clogher. He was the younger brother of John Foster, 1st Baron Oriel. One of his first cousins, John Thomas Foster married Lady Elizabeth Hervey,
aka Lady Bess Foster, daughter of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, later mistress William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire. After the separation and divorce from her first husband and the death of her lover's first wife, Lady Georgina Spencer, Elizabth finally married him in 1809 and became the Duchess of Devonshire.

Family

Foster married Catharina-Letitia Leslie daughter of Rev. Dr. Henry Leslie, LLD, of Ballibay, co. Monaghan.. They had two sons, including John Leslie Foster, and five daughters. He was a father-in-law of Jerome, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio. He was a grandfather of Sir William Foster Stawell, William Fane De Salis and John Warren, 3rd Baron de Tabley.

Death

William Foster died in November 1797, at the age of 53.