This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/lRB.2ACE/892.3 Message Board Post: Hello Peter, The oft repeated claim that Thomas and Christopher Foster were brothers may have originated in Bernice Schultz Marshall's 1937 book 'Colonial Hempstead'. At least that's the earliest citation I've found. I've looked into the early Fosters of Queens County (I have a maternal line of L.I. Fosters), and while I can't claim that my research is comprehensive, I've come across no evidence whatsoever that the two men were related. Nor have I found any common thread between them, other than the fact they were both original patentees of Hempstead. Thomas Foster (d. 1663 in Jamaica) may have came to Hempstead as early as 1644, supposedly via Fairfield CT, but his route remains unconfirmed. I do not know his ultimate origin, other than he was English. Neither Forrester nor Pierce had anything to say about him in their Foster family histories. Thomas remained in Hempstead long after Christopher removed to Southampton and I know of no direct interactions between them before or after Christopher's departure. Thomas was a resident of Jamaica by 1661, and he was active in establishing the Presbterian Church in that town. His wife was Anne Dunbar, who later married Joseph Thurston. According to Josephine Frost, their children were Thomas (m. Elizabeth Denton), John (m. Altia Cornelise), Mary (m. Richard Denton), Jane (m. Richard Oldfield) and Hannah (m. David Wright). Some sources claim he had a daughter who married Henry Whitson, but I do not know who she was. In the early 20th century, there were still Fosters in south Jama! ica who claimed (in so many words) to be Thomas's descendents, and also claimed that the land they lived on was part of his original patent. The John Foster Sr. who died 1686/7 in Jamaica was Thomas's brother. He first appears in the Jamaica town records in 1663/4. His wife was Emden (maiden name unknown) and he had several children. The only one whose name we know was Henry Foster, the "cousin" Thomas named in his will (actually his nephew). The other children were living in England when John died, but remain unidentified. Henry died in 1683, leaving behind a wife Jane, one son and four or five daughters. The Long Island descendents of Henry's son, John Foster (m. Phebe Denton), who was one of the original freeholders of Elizabethtown NJ, are fairly well known into the mid-19th century. A possible relative of these men was Simon/Symon Foster, who first appeared in Hempstead in 1673. He was a witness when John Foster II of Jamaica, son of Thomas, came into his full estate in 1685. I know nothing more about him. I've seen no evidence that Thomas and John were related to William Foster of Jamaica (d. 1687/8), who was among the "friends" Thomas Foster mentioned in his will, though their shared surname and close proximity is admittedly a striking coincidence. William first appears in the Hempstead town records in 1658 and in the Jamaica town records in 1659. He resided in Gravesend for a brief period after his second marriage in 1679 to a two-time widow, Ann Stillwell Wilkins of Gravesend. William disposed of their Gravesend property in 1681/2 and returned to Jamaica with Ann. William married (1) Deborah Valentine in 1674; (2) Ann (Van Dyke) Stillwell Wilkins in 1679; and (3) Hannah, by 1687. His only known children and heirs were daughters Deborah and Mary, by his first wife. There was only one William Foster in the 1683 "List of the town estate of Jamaica", and only one man by that name in the "Return of marriages, christenings and burials in...Jamaica for 7 years preceding 1688". I! know of no other William Fosters in the town in the 1680s. The Fosters of Alley Pond, whose progenitor was also named Thomas Foster, are another matter altogether. Unfortunately, early Flushing town records that might have shed more light on them were destroyed in a fire. It is said that members of the family still inhabited the old stone house in the Alley during the Revolution, but there were no Fosters listed in the 1698 census of Flushing. Fosters of this line helped establish the Zion Episcopal Church in Douglaston in 1830. In 1899/1900, some of the descendents were engaged in a law suit over the estate of Hannah Foster of Douglaston. So far I've found nothing that links any of those individuals to the Hempstead/Jamaica or Southampton Fosters, but there's so little available information I can't draw any firm conclusions. I suspect the early Long Island Fosters are like the early L.I. Smiths -- of diverse lineage and the source of many genealogical headaches. I know this doesn't answer your question about their origins, but I hope it proves helpful. I you find anything else that you think pertains to the Hempstead/Jamaica or Flushing lines, please let me know. Marie