I have some material about Ralph Forster, quite a few entries fromthe "Maryland Gazette", but I'm wondering whether anyone else has responded to your qrestions. Kate Germano sent a query out to several people, and perhaps someone else has taken care of it. Let me know.
Susan G. Pearl, Historian
Prince George's Co. Historical Society
--Previous Message--
: I recently found little article produced
: several years ago by an anti-slavery group
: in England about a Ralph Forster of Berwick
: who had a slave baptized in North England
: congregation in the early 1760s or so. A
: Ralph Forster had been ship captain for the
: HERO which brought many Swiss/German
: migrants to Philadelphia from Rotterdam in
: 1764. Forster is referred to in many family
: genealogies (including my own) as the
: captain of the ship of their ancestor, but
: I’d never known of anything about him. And
: so I set out to explore connections.
:
: I’ve found many “Fosters” but few “Forsters”
: in cursory review of American colonies,
: though there were a number in Berwick. One
: of a landed family was known by historians
: of Northumberland (England) writing in 1880
: or so to have resided at Upper Marlborough
: of Prince George in 1774.
: It seems that Forster was from a landed
: family of Berwick. They are castle keepers
: for hundreds of years, often mayors of
: Berwick, and often involved as merchants or
: seamen.
:
: Forster was Sheriff of Prince George County
: for a number of years and sold merchandise
: out of stores which he had at Pig’s Point
: and Indian Landing near Annapolis. Stringing
: items together, it seems that he arrived in
: Philadelphia and was soon working with
: Robert Morris (among the most prosperous
: merchants of the colonies at the time) of
: Willing and Morris doing privateering. His
: name appears as co-owner of one boat taken
: from French off New England, and another
: boat taken later (Nancy), a likely Willing
: and Morris slave ship which was lost to the
: French in the Caribbean. He was a lawyer and
: represented a number of the early planter
: families who had property temporarily
: confiscated from questions of their loyalty
: to an impending new nation.
:
: Toward the end of his life, Forster married
: Theresa (various spellings) Digges of
: Warburton Manor (Fort Washington). The
: Digges and the George Washington’s were
: closest neighbors and involved socially.
: Forester himself gets mention as a visitor
: at Mt. Vernon in George Washington’s diary
: in 1786 though perhaps the two didn’t know
: one another well, as evidenced by George
: naming him (in error) as “Ralph Foster”.
:
: I’ve not accessed land records, but
: Forster’s Sheriff’s pay seemed to involve
: rent allotments, and there are occasions
: where he’d advertised to call in debts
: before traveling abroad — so he may never
: have owned property. He died near Annapolis
: at a place which is now called Quiet Waters
: Park and the estate sale advertisement noted
: that the lease on the place was available.
:
: There are risks in what I’ve done stringing
: the ‘pieces’ together, and you may have
: supplementary or far better information
: since I just might be conflating information
: relating to several individuals. I’m an old
: retired guy with limited means and have only
: accessed freely available web resources.
: Those with whom I’ve shared the ‘story’ have
: been interested, and if you are interested
: you may download my summary so far at
: http://www.imanfamily.net/Forster_of_Berwick.pdf
: .
:
: I’d dearly treasure any comments,
: suggestions, or help. I’d love to hear from
: you. sciman at csupomona dot edu
:
:
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