▶Date of birth:  1839        Place of birth: Shepshed, Leicestershire

▶Father:  Charles Stout Foston     Mother:  Mary Ann Gilbert

▶Spouse(s):  Lucy Marshall    Date(s) of marriage:  4 October 1864     Place(s) of marriage: Baptist Chapel, Shepshed, Leicestershire

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Baptist minister), Landowner

▶Lifestory: Thomas (“Tom”) Foston was a popular Baptist minister who engaged in fundraising, youth work, and political activity for the Liberals. He was born in 1839 in Shepshed, Leicestershire, the elder son of Charles Stout Foston, tailor, of Shepshed, and his wife Mary Ann (née Gilbert). He trained for the Pastorate at Bristol College and in 1864 he was ordained for the Baptist ministry at the Salem Chapel in Cheltenham.  Later that year he married Lucy, the eldest daughter of Thomas Marshall, from his home village of Shepshed, Leicestershire, when he was living at Charlton Kings; they had two sons and a daughter. Between 1865 and 1866 he lived in Pittville at 30 Clarence Square.

He engaged in public life in Cheltenham, attending a demonstration in 1864 in support of the Liberal election candidate, and was involved in initiatives for young people at his chapel. But in late 1865 he failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority to remain in post after his two-year probationary period, and in June 1866 left his ministry at the Salem Chapel to take up the pastorate at St Clement’s Baptist Chapel in Norwich. By 1870 he had again moved on, becoming Minister of  the Marlowe Chapel in the town.

Despite his initial setback in Cheltenham, Foston seems to have been a popular minster in his later pastorates. A further transfer in 1877 saw him take office as Pastor at the Rosse Street Baptist Chapel in Shipley, near Bradford, where the congregation made a collection before his installation to clear the outstanding debt on the chapel. After seven years in Shipley, the ill-health of his wife Lucy, who had apparently been close to death the previous winter, meant that he had to resign his ministry to move to a more congenial climate; though he had found it hard at first to make headway at Shipley at first, in the end he was generally respected and left with many happy memories.

The following year he accepted the office of Minister at Lee Chapel in Lee, Kent, where he remained until resigning in August 1893; by 1901 he was living in retirement in Melbourne, Derbyshire. His final move was to Hathern in Leicestershire, where he continued to assist in chapel work, while living at Hill House; he died in mid 1912 in his eighties; his personalty was recorded as over £9,300, including consols and shares in several railway companies.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Bristol      Moved from Pittville to: Norwich

▶Date of death: 2 June 1912       Place of death: Hathern, Leicestershire

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 5772

Contributor(s):  John Simpson