Edward Foster, Thompson Lane, Cambridge, to Joseph Angus, Baptist Mission House, Fen Court, Fenchurch Street, London, 28 October 1842.

Thompson Lane
Oct 28 1842

My dear Sir,

      I have been informed that if I directed a letter to you under cover to Mr Clarke, Missionary to Africa, you would be so kind as to direct it for me and send it to him, as you are in possession of what place he may be at 

      Your attention to that effect will greatly oblige

                                                   Yours very truly

                                                                     Edward Foster

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), p. 263 (annotated version); also MAW, Box 39 (BMS 1721), John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Edward Foster contributed £20 to the BMS Jubilee Fund in December 1842. An “E. Foster, sen,” contributed £100. This was most likely his father, Ebenezer Foster (1777-1852) of Anstey Hall, Trumpington, the founder of Foster’s Bank and Mayor of Cambridge (1836-37) and High Sheriff (1849). His father was Richard Foster (d. 1790), also of Cambridge and a deacon at St. Andrew’s Street. Seven other Fosters contributed to the BMS at that time. Fosters had been leading members at St. Andrew’s Street and prominent public figures in Cambridge for several generations by 1842. See Church Book: St. Andrew’s Street Baptist Church, Cambridge 1720-1832 (London: Baptist Historical Society, 1991), 133, 142,173; Missionary Herald (January 1843), 67.