Foster John

Foster, John, an English essayist (1770-1843), was born near Halifax, and after a sombre, gloomy childhood was sent to the Baptist College at Bristol. He was not very successful as a minister, and lived successively at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Dublin, Chichester, Bristol, Frome, and died at Stapleton, near Bristol. He published a volume of essays in 1806, the best-known of them being, perhaps, that on Decision of Character. Among other works are An Essay on Popular Ignorance (1820).