Stephen Foster (Lord Mayor of London)
Sir Stephen Foster ( fl. 1454; † 1458) was a fishmonger (and as such a member of the Guild Worshipful Company of Fishmongers ) and the later Lord Mayor of London .
Life
He was the son of Robert Foster of London, a stockfish dealer . When Stephen Foster couldn't pay his bills, he had to go to the debt prison in the Ludgate city gate . It was customary for the prisoners to have to beg the numerous people walking through the gate at this point in order to guarantee their food. It so happened that one day a wealthy widow from Kentwas addressed, who just passed the city gate. In conversation with the begging Foster, she learned the amount of the sum, which is why he was there. She paid the sum of £ 20, which was considerable for the time, and Foster was freed and in the service of his patroness, whom he later married as a successful businessman.
Stephen Foster was elected Sheriff of London in 1444 and Lord Mayor of London in 1454 (usually only for one year). He was previously Member of Parliament for London in King Henry VI's 13th Parliament . in 1434.
Stephen and Agnes Foster never forgot the terrible place they met. So they designed an extension of the guilty prison in the western city gate and began with the demolition and new construction. Stephen Forster died in 1458 and was buried in St Botolph Billingsgate's cemetery. His widow completed the project in 1463. Before that, she reached out to one of Stephen's successors in the office of mayor, Matthew Philip, that the prisoners no longer had to pay for their own room and board.
In the literature
Agnes and Stephen Foster appear as characters in William Rowley's play A New Wonder, a Woman Never Vexed , which is based on the events of their lives.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b William Smith: A new history and survey of the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark , 1833, p. 81 in the Google book search
- ↑ John Nichols: Fuimus Troes: The True Trojans , 1828, p. 203 in the Google book search
- ^ William Carew Hazlitt: The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First , 1823, p. 90 in the Google book search
- ^ John Strype: A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster , London 1633, p. 278 ( online )
- ^ R. Baldwin: The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer , Volume 29, London 1760 online in the Google book search
- ^ William Harvey: London Scenes and London People: Anecdotes, Reminiscences, and Sketches of Places, Personages, Events, Customs, and Curiosities of London City, Past and Present , p. 255 in the Google book search