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created justice of the peace, and in 1775 was elected town The latter office he held until 1787, his being exceeded by that of only one subIn May, 1777, he was made sheriff of

clerk of Providence. term of twelve years sequent town clerk. Providence County.

He served as deputy from Providence in the General Assembly, in 1776, (Oct.); 1777, (Oct.); 1778; 1779; 1780, (Feb. and Oct.); and 1781.

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He never was in the army. He was however a most efficient secretary of the Rhode Island Council of War, which from 1776 to 1781, did much to enable Rhode Island to meet approximately the demands made upon her for troops, money, and supplies. His father, Judge Foster, was appointed,' May 28, 1773, a member of a committee of correspondence chosen by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, one of whose instructions was that they should inform themselves particularly of the principles and authority on which was constituted a court of inquiry, held in Rhode Island; "—namely the "Gaspee" commission which had been in session at Newport." His youngest brother, Peregrine Foster, was in service with General Washington, in his West Point campaign, in 1780, and

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Massachusetts Spy), a noteworthy force in the struggle for colonial rights. (E. S. Thomas's "Reminiscences," II. 15, 16).

(1)In June, 1772, he was appointed assistant clerk of the Superior Court. (Foster Papers, XI. 48).

(2) Staples's "Annals," p. 654.

(3) Nathan W. Jackson served from 1799 to 1829. Staples's "Annals,” p. 654. (4) R. I. Col. Records, VIII. 221.

(5) Ibid., VIII. 3, 386; IX. 3, 382. Also, Staples's "Annals," p. 652.

(6) For the work assigned to this body, see R. I. Col. Records, VIII. 57. The manuscript records of the Council of War, most of them in Mr. Foster's hand, are at the State House, in Providence.

(7) R. I. Col. Records, VII. 230.

(8) R. I. Col. Records VII. 229.

(9) Theodore Foster was assistant clerk, "in the inquiry which was holden" by the Superior Court, in June, 1772, with reference to this Gaspee occurrence, (as he states in a letter to Dr. John Mawney, Sept. 26, 1825.) (Foster Papers, XI. 48).

(10) He was present at the execution of Major André," in 1780. Dwight genealogy, II. 657.

was doubtless in Rhode Island during a part of the war at least. Peregrine Foster, in 1782, removed to Providence, "where he read and practised law for a few years, with his brother Theodore."1 Theodore Foster's more distant kinsman, Moses Foster, of Ipswich, Mass., was in service, moreover, in the Rhode Island campaigns of 1778 and 1779. Theodore's own service, however, was administrative instead of military.3

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In 1780 his name was used as a candidate for delegate to the Continental Congress from Rhode Island. His friend, General James Mitchell Varnum' was the successful competitor, being elected by 17 majority. Mr. Foster's career in the politics of the country was thus postponed until a later period, when the position was one of greater honor and dignity, and to membership in a body which commanded greater respect than the Continental Congress in its last years.

In 1781 occasion arose for dividing the town of Scituate, one of the towns formed at the first division of the county of Providence in 1730-1; and the town in which Governor Hopkins's early years had been spent. The new town, the first to become incorporated under the independent existence of the colonies, comprised the western portion. It was named Foster,s in honor of a citizen whose services had already been of value to the state. Later in life, it became his home."

(1)Dwight Genealogy, II. 657.

(2) He was in Col. Wade's regiment of Massachusetts men. See the Massachusetts Revolutionary Rolls, in manuscript, at the State House, Boston. (3) His connection with various commissions, trusts, etc., may be studied in R. I. Col. Records, VII. 562; VIII. 3, 59, 109, 143, 386, 529; IX. 3, 30, 179, 382, 429.

(4) See Updike's "Memoirs of the Rhode Island bar,” p. 154–55. (5) "An act for dividing the town of Scituate, and incorporating the west end thereof into a township, to be distinguished and known by the name of Foster." R. I. Col. Records, IX. 460. "Taking its name from Theodore Foster," (Staples's "Annals," p. 598).

(6) From the time of his return to Rhode Island from congress, the most of his time was passed at the estate which he had acquired at Foster. (See the letters of Dr. Solomon Drowne, 1803-20, kindly lent the editor by Mr. Henry T. Drowne). His office in 1773 was not far from the Great

The years between the close of the war in 1783, and his election to congress in 1790, were those of his chief activity in his profession as a lawyer. He had married in 1771, the next year after being graduated from college, Lydia Fenner,3 daughter of Capt. Arthur Fenner, Jr., who was afterwards governor of the state for fifteen years, 1790-1805. Three children had been born to him, two of whom were still living in 1783. As town clerk, his office was in the Market-house, in Market Square, erected in 1773. His own office was doubtless here also, although at first on the other side of the river." During the years 1776 to 1785 also, he was brought into the closest association with Governor Stephen Hopkins, now an invalid, retired from active life and withdrawn through his infirmity from participation in the councils of the Continental Congress. The two men, whose historical tastes furnished a common bond of sympathy, systematically coöperated in the collection and preservation of historical material.' In 1794, Senator Foster's only daughter, Theodosia, became the wife of Governor Hopkins's grandson, (and namesake), Stephen Tilling

hast.

The war was now over, but there was by no means an end of the difficulties of Rhode Island. The uneasiness which had been manifesting itself for several years became still more

Bridge, on the west side of the river. See advertisement in Providence
Gazette, Nov. 27, 1773.

(1) A "Docket," 1785-91, of Theodore Foster is in the Foster Papers, VI. 22. (2) Oct. 27, 1771.

(3) His much beloved wife died in June, 1801.

(4) Mrs. Foster's brother, James Fenner, also became governor of the state, serving from 1807 to 1811, and from 1824 to 1831, and was United States senator, 1805-7.

(5) Theodosia Foster, b. 1772; Theodore Dwight Foster, b. 1780.

(6) His house at about this time was near the present Court House, on Benefit St. Compare the French list of officers' quarters in Providence, 1780, in the possession of Henry T. Drowne, of New York, where it is entered as "Back street au delà du pont." (Printed in Stone's "Our French allies," p. 321).

(7) See page 8, ante.

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pronounced, and in the spring election of 17861 the government passed into the hands of the discontented element. One of the first movements of this General Assembly was to pass "An act for emitting one hundred thousand pounds" in bills of credit, a proceeding which in the light which the issue of continental money during the war had thrown upon the whole question of paper currency, was an almost colossal act of folly. The resolution making provision for the salaries of judicial officers was repealed. The action of the previous legislature, making provision for the collection by the national government, of the necessary excise tax,' was suspended. So also was the levy of a tax of £20,000, but this was soon afterwards taken up again and passed. But it was in connection with the issue of paper money that the most extraordinary proceedings were entered on. "The law," says Judge Potter, "directed that these bills should pass in all kinds of business, and in payment of former contracts, at par with specie. Within about a month, this was followed by an act "subjecting such as should refuse to receive the bills issued upon the terms specified, to a penalty of a hundred pounds," and to trial by a special court, convened within three days, and without a jury. The alternative, in case of refusal to receive the bills, was imprisonment; "and from this judgment there was no appeal."

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(1) Gov. Greene, who had been in the chair since 1778, was succeeded by Gov. Collins. Of the governor's council of assistants three were new, and of the sixty-nine deputies, forty-three were new. See R. I. Col. Records,

X. 190-92.

(2) R. I. Col. Records, X. 197. The text of the act is in the printed "schedule," or "Acts and Resolves."

(3) Ibid., X. 196.

(4) Ibid., X. 199. Compare also X. 229.

(5) Ibid., X. 199.

(6) Ibid., X. 206.

(7) "Some account of the bills of credit or paper money of Rhode-Island," (R. I. Historical Tracts, No. 8), p. 118.

(8) Ibid., p. 119.

(9) Ibid., p. 120.

The town of Providence, throughout this temporary political madness, appears to have interposed a constant, steady, and most intelligent opposition; while the county of Providence, embracing the outlying towns, was completely under the influence of the delusion. The case of Trevett vs. Weeden was decided in the Superior Court, September 26, 1786. On the 17th of October, a committee of which Mr. Foster was a member, presented to the town of Providence a carefully considered and thoroughly intelligent report, covering the ground very fully. In this same month the General Assembly, having reached the highest conceivable point of folly in citing the judges who had rendered the Trevett vs. Weeden decision "to give their immediate attendance on this Assembly to assign the reasons and grounds of the aforesaid judgment," abandoned its worse than childish meddling with the matter. The law making the paper money a legal tender was not, however, repealed until 1789.8

Mr. Foster's manuscript collections contain documents bearing upon this discussion and also upon the agitation in

(1) Staples's "Annals," p. 294-320; Arnold's "Rhode Island," II. 517, 520, 539, 543, 545-50.

(2) Staples's "Annals," p. 301, 319.

(3) The proceedings in this well-known case were separately published, (“The case, Trevett against Weeden," Providence, 1787).

(4) See also Arnold's "Rhode Island," II. 525; and Updike's "Memoirs of the Rhode Island bar,” p. 166-207.

(5) Printed in Staples's "Annals,” p. 306-11.

(6) This had been preceded in February of the same year by a memorial from citizens of Providence to the General Assembly, in which they ventured to "entertain too high an opinion of the good sense and virtue of the substantial farmers in the country, to believe that they can listen to the suggestions of a wily, selfish, policy, or aim to build themselves up, at the expense of sacrificing the seaport towns and the commerce of the state." (Staples's "Annals," p. 301). The event proved that this good opinion was indeed "too high."

(7)R. I. Col. Records, X. 215. Compare also Potter's "Bills of credit," p. 125-29.

(8) R. I. Col. Records, X. 355.

(9) Foster Papers, III. 42. See also his correspondence.

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