FOSTER, Alexander ²

  General Notes:

Alexander and Jane Foster were not in any natural or official capacity the parents of Isabella Nisbet. However, after the death of her mother at Isabella's birth, and her father's remarriage, Isabella appears to have lived with this couple, according to the 1891 and 1901 census returns. They appear at the very least to have been her carers. Her eldest daughter was given the name of Jane Anderson Foster Gordon, where Scots naming tradition would have placed on the child her maternal grandmother's name. This suggests that Isabella may have seen Jane Foster as the substitute for her own mother. None of her children were called after her natural mother.

The 1891 census did not include Isabella Nisbet in those living in her own family's household. She was living as a boarder with Alexander and Jane Foster at 7a Brown Street Edinburgh. Isabella was recorded as aged 9 years and was a scholar. She had been born in Edinburgh. The dwelling she lived in had one windowed room. She boarded with an elderly couple: Alexander Foster was a cooper by trade, still employed, aged 66 years, and had been born in Leith; his wife, Jane Foster, was 64 years of age and had been born in Edinburgh. ²

Alexander married Jane ANDERSON, daughter of Peter ANDERSON and Jane WOOD, on 28 June 1850 in Leith South parish, Midlothian, Scotland.¹ (Jane ANDERSON was born in Edinburgh, Scotland ³ and was baptised on 10 October 1826 in Canongate, Edinburgh, Scotland ³.)

  Marriage Notes:

From OPR marriages
"Leith South
1850
Alexander Foster, cooper residing at 11 Darling's Brae Leith, and Jane Anderson residing at 39 Elbe Street Leith daughter of the late Peter Anderson, mason, Edinburgh, were three times proclaimed in order to marriage [sic] in the Parish Church of south Leith 23 June 1850 and married at Leith 28 June 1850 by the Rev. Dr Steven Edinburgh" ¹