The Official Story
Chapter 17
The Foster epilogue
Very little is known about the lives of Isaac and Rebecca Foster after they left Hallowell. But you can find several interesting clues in the archives. In this 1792 diary entry of the minister Ezra Stiles, written while traveling through Westchester County NY, he reported, "Isaac Foster still at Bedford in the Parsonage House, but don't preach --- drinks a Quart Rum a Day. Wife handsome but mentis inops. Poor. Works for Colonel Sacket. A Devil incarnate -- an abandoned Minister!"A 19th century history of Westchester County NY reported that Isaac Foster preached for two years in Bedford, New York, before leaving,"as tradition reports, with his name and that of his wife in bad repute."
The next clue appears in "The Eastern Shore Churchman" from 1927. Isaac Foster shows up as the minister of an Episcopal church in Rehoboth, Maryland from 1795 until his death in 1800. And a newspaper abstract from Princess Anne, Maryland tells us that according to Foster family lore, after Isaac's death, Rebecca Foster left for Peru with her youngest son to search for gold.
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What did Martha have to say about this? |
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The Foster story in the official town history |
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The Conclusion of One Rape. Two Stories. |
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Read the other version of the story from the beginning |
| The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, Vol. 3 Dexter, Franklin Bowditch 1901 |
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| Frontispiece | Title page | Page 474 | Page 475 | |
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