Nathaniel Foster
Born1781
Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedDecember 27, 1853(1853-12-27) (aged 71–72)
Yarmouth, Maine, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
SpouseRebecca Swasey (1804–1853; his death)

Nathaniel Foster (1781 – December 27, 1853) was a noted 18th- and 19th-century American potter and merchant.

Life and career

Foster was born in Massachusetts in 1781. He moved north to coastal North Yarmouth, Maine (now Yarmouth), where he established a pottery business on Gooches' Lane (today's East Elm Street).[1][2][3]

In 1804, he married Rebecca Swasey,[4] with whom he had twelve known children,[5] including daughters Diantha Heald (in 1809)[6] and Mary (1807). Mary died in 1823, aged fifteen or sixteen; Diantha died in 1852, aged 42 or 43. She married John Corliss, another potter, in 1831.[1]

The family lived at 14 Baptist Street (today's Church Street).[7] Foster helped lay out the adjacent Baker Street around 1848.[5]

Death

Foster died on December 27, 1853, aged 71 or 72. He is interred in Yarmouth's Old Baptist Cemetery, alongside his wife, who survived him by 22 years. She died in 1875, aged 90.[5]

Foster's sons, Benjamin and William, who were his assistants, ran the pottery after their father's death.[8] The building housing his pottery was torn down in 1891.[9]

Joel Brooks later succeeded Foster as Yarmouth's potter.[10] He lived on Gooches' Lane, near Foster's pottery.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Watkins, Lura Woodside (2011). Early New England Potters and Their Wares. Read Books Limited. p. 1807. ISBN 9781446546994.
  2. ↑ Branin, Manlif Lelyn (1978). The Early Potters and Potteries of Maine. Wesleyan University Press. p. 94. ISBN 9780819550224.
  3. ↑ Old-time New England, volume 22. Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. 1932. p. 180.
  4. ↑ Bell, Charles Henry (1888). History of the Town of Exeter, New Hampshire. p. 53.
  5. 1 2 3 Corliss, Augustus W. (1881). Old Times: A Magazine Devoted to the Preservation and Publication of Documents Relating to the Early History of North Yarmouth, Maine · Volumes 5-6.
  6. ↑ Jewett, Frederic Clarke (1908). History and genealogy of the Jewetts of America. Grafton Press. p. 404. ISBN 9785870847818.
  7. ↑ Architectural Survey Yarmouth, ME (Phase One, September, 2018 - Yarmouth's town website)
  8. ↑ "The North Yarmouth, Maine, Pottery Industry, 1791-1890", Maine Antique Digest, November 2019
  9. ↑ Images of America: Yarmouth, Alan M. Hall (Arcadia, 2002), p.31
  10. ↑ "Yarmouth Historic Context Statement", Town of Yarmouth, 2020
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