Researching John Foster

Foster is now best known as the composer of a tune known as Old Foster, to which the words While shepherds watched their flocks by night are sung in the South Yorkshire pub carolling tradition (for example, at the Fountain Inn at Ingbirchworth). A version of the tune is also sung at Castleton, Derbyshire, where it is known as Prince of Orange and used with the words Hark, the glad sound! the Saviour comes, by Philip Doddridge. The tune was originally published in A 2d Collection of Sacred Music as a setting of Psalm 47 in the metrical version by John Hopkins, Ye people all with one accord: the pub carol tradition is thought to originate from the ejection of 'west gallery' choirs and bands from parish churches in the mid-nineteenth century.

Foster is credited by Alfred Gatty, vicar of Ecclesfield from 1839 to 1903, with the suppression of dog- and cock-fighting in the local area.

Commercial recordings of two of Foster's works, with full orchestral accompaniments, have been made by the group 'Psalmody' conducted by Peter Holman. Their first CD While shepherds watched includes While shepherds watched their flocks by night sung to the 'Old Foster' or Ps. 47 tune, while their CD Haydn and his English Friends includes The God of Gods, the Lord, also taken from A 2d Collection of Sacred Music.

He was the grandson of John Foster of Dunleer, MP for Dunleer and Elizabeth, née Fortescue. Foster was appointed High Sheriff of Louth for 1776 and then elected member to the Irish House of Commons for Dunleer in 1783 and held this seat until 1790. His parents were William Foster and Patience Fowke who married in 1743.

Foster married 1788, Rebecca (b.c. 1764 d. 1853) only child of Hamilton McClure,. Esq., of Dublin, and died 1809.

He was ancestor of the Foster family of Ballymascanlon.

He was the son of Rev Thomas Foster, Rector of Dunleer and Dorothy née Burgh. Foster was elected member to the Irish House of Commons for Dunleer in 1776 and held this seat until 1783. Subsequently he represented Ennis until 1790.

Foster married 1776, Lady Elizabeth Hervey daughter of 4th Earl of Bristol; they separated 1781. Children:* Frederick Thomas Foster (3 October 1777 – 1853) MP for Bury St Edmunds.* Elizabeth Foster (17 November 1778 – 25 November 1778).* Augustus John Foster, later Sir Augustus Foster, 1st Baronet (December 1780 – 1848).

Foster made his debut for Shropshire in the 1980 Minor Counties Championship against Durham. Foster played Minor counties cricket for Shropshire from 1980 to 1994, which included 105 Minor Counties Championship appearances and 17 MCCA Knockout Trophy appearances. He served as Shropshire's club captain in 1987-1992. He made his List A debut against Somerset in the 1983 NatWest Trophy. He made 7 further List A appearances, the last of which came against Leicestershire in the 1991 NatWest Trophy. In his 8 List A matches, he scored 181 runs at an average of 22.62, with a high score of 63. This score, which was one of 2 List A half centuries, came against Northamptonshire in the 1985 NatWest Trophy.

His son, Edward, has played first-class cricket for Loughborough UCCE and Minor counties cricket for Shropshire.

He was the son of a colliery owner and farmer in Bradford, West Yorkshire. In 1819 he married Ruth Briggs, daughter of a landowner from Queensbury, on the outskirts of Bradford.

He set up in business the same year in a warehouse in Queensbury on what would later be the site of the Black Dyke Mills. Initially he would buy yarn and distribute it to handloom weavers who would sell back the finished cloth. By 1827 he was successful enough to build Prospect House as a family home.

In 1828 he rented Cannon Mill for wool spinning, prior to erecting the first part of Black Dyke Mills in 1835 on land acquired from his father-in-law. By 1851 Black Dyke Mills was dominating the Queensbury landscape and at the Great Exhibition of that year he was awarded first prize for alpaca and mohair fabrics and the gold medal for yarns.

right|thumb|Hornby CastleIn the 1870s he bought and renovated Hornby Castle, Lancashire, to which he retired. On his death in 1879 he was succeeded by his son William, who had been made a full partner in the business of John Foster & Son since 1842. The company is still a leading manufacturer of worsted and mohair fabric.