Holbrook line: Abraham Foster, Immigrant Son

I wrote earlier about Reginald Foster, Abraham's father, but Abraham deserves a post of his own because he was 16, and almost a man, when he arrived with his father and mother, four brothers and two sisters.  Abraham was born in April of 1622 in Exeter, Devonshire, England, the third child and first son.  It must have been a happy day when he arrived!  Unlike the stories of many of our English ancestors, Abraham didn't grow up in a small village or even a small town.  Exeter was large enough to have its own cathedral, and old enough to trace its roots back at least to the Romans. 

It's not clear why Reginald and Judith Foster, Abraha's parents, chose to leave England, nor exactly when they left.  One story is that they left on an embargoed ship in 1638.  They were in Ipswich, Essex COunty, Massachusetts by 1638, so perhaps they left even earlier than suspected.  If they traveled on an embargoed ship, then they left England illegally and perhaps made a sop in another port in order to arrive in New England without questions being asked.  It has also been suggested that perhaps he was part of the exiled Rev. John Wheelwright's party, but that group settled in what became Exeter, New Hampshire and there is no indication that the Fosters had any connections there.  The Fosters probably came to America for both religious and economic reasons. 

There is a bit of a controversy concerning Abraham's wife.  Was she Lydia Burbank?  Most genealogies say that was her name, but they are split on the identity of her parents.  I am tentatively leaving her parents as John and Jemima (last name not known) Burbank, while noting that some believe her parents to be Caleb and Martha Burbank.  To be Caleb's daughter, she would have had to marry at an exceptionally young age (11 to 14, depending on which source you choose).  The Lydia Burbank who was born to John and Jemima was born in 1644, unless that is her baptismadate rather than her birth date.  To my mind, the answer to her parentage is not yet clear.  Abraham and Lydia's  first known child, Ephraim, was born October 9, 1657, so probably Lydia was born before 1640 and perhaps earlier. 

Abraham was not admitted to full communion with the church until 1676, when he was 58 years old.  If he left England for religious reasons, why did it take so long for him to join the church, unless in fact he was a Wheelwright adherent?  That is another mystery not yet solved.  We know that Abraham was a yeoman, a farmer who owned land.  His name is on a "rate" list from 1648, showing the ammount each resident needed to pay for the msalary of their "Leader", Major Denison.  Abraham's share is 3 shillings.  He was a witness in a court case in 1651, and in 1678 is on a list of people who had rights to the cow commons.  That's not a lot of information to show who our ancestor was and what he did for the 73 years or so that he lived in Ipswich. 

Abraham died without a will, at about his 90th year, on January 15, 1710-11. He had disposed of all of his lands to his sons, through deeds, and his inventory, if there was one, would have been very basic.  So we don't know whether he was literate, we don't know what crops or animals he raised, other than he had rights to the commons, whether that was for hogs, sheep, or cows, and we don't know if he served in the militia although a good guess would be that he did.  But we do know that he came to Massachusetts, married here, raised a family here, and contributed to the growth of the colony.  For that, we are grateful.

The line of descent is:

Abraham Foster-Lydia probably Burbank
Abraham Foster-Mary Robinson
Nathan Foster-Hannah Standish
Nathan Foster-Elizabeth Lansford
Jude Foster-Lydia M
Betsy Foster-Josiah Whittemore
Mary Elizabeth Whittermore-Joseph Holbrook
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants