Descendants of Captain Arthur Fenner

Lydia Fenner

 

[b 1 Mar. 1748; d 1 June 1801] Lydia Fenner m Hon. Theodore Foster [b 29 Apr. 1752; d 13 Jan. 1828] on 27 Oct. 1771. Ted was a graduate of Brown University (Rhode Island College) in 1770. He was also a lawyer by trade, but he served as Providence Town Clerk, and he served as a U.S. Senator from 1790 to 1803. He and Joseph Staton were the first two U.S. Senators to represent Rhode Island in the newly formed constitutional government.

Senator Theodore Foster came from Brookfield, Mass., while yet in his teens, and graduated at Rhode Island College in 1770. He married a sister of the late Governor James Fenner. He was town clerk 12 years, was drawn into the exciting life of a politician, studied and practiced law in Providence, and in 1790 was made United States senator, which office he held till 1803. In 1800 Mr. Foster, who had great interest in the town which had taken his name, proposed to his friend, Doctor Drowne, to purchase a farm then for sale adjoining his estate, and carry into practice certain cherished ideas of their youthful days. Doctor Drowne, who had had enough of the West, lent a willing ear. The farm was surveyed, its soil was pronounced good, its situation elevated and eligible, its sylvan scenery charming, and its title was secured. Doctor Drowne called it Mount Hygeia, after the Greek goddess of health, and wrote a letter composing some verses invoking the favor of that cherished divinity of heathen mythology, and sent it to Mr. Foster at Washington. Mr. Foster caught up the glowing strain of his friend and penned the following poem:

Hail Hygeia! Rhode Island’s fairest seat!
Famed Fosteria’s highest hill!
Where beauty, love, and friendship meet
And rapture’s sweetest joys distil! . . .

Doctor Solomon Drowne, the eminent botanist, was a warm personal friend of Senator Foster. He graduated three years later from the Rhode Island College, but they roomed together in the old Drowne mansion on Cheapside, Providence, worshipped together in the old First Baptist church, and sustained the most friendly and intimate relations to each other all through life. Science, philosophy and belles-lettres were their delight, and in order to indulge their tastes, they agreed to withdraw, as soon as circumstances would permit, from places frequented by the multitude, and take up their abode on adjoining farms, where they could have each other’s society and pass their days in rural retirement. This led to the settlement of Mount Hygeia by these two distinguished men. Doctor Drowne took up his residence there in 1801, and Mr. Foster at the close of his senatorial career in 1803.

While Doctor Drowne was a successful and popular physician, he cared less for the practice of his profession than for his scientific pur- suits, especially for botany, which he taught successfully for many years in Brown University. Mr. Foster was more inclined to history, statistics, and general literature. They remained together till 1820, when Mr. Foster, apparently satiated with rural pleasure, and craving more social intercourse, left Mount Hygeia for a house in Providence, where he died in 1828, leaving as the fruit of his industry a volumi- nous collection of manuscripts, now in the archives of the State Historical Society.

—Richard M. Bayles, History of Providence County, Rhode Island (1891)

Lydia’s brother Arthur was the first constitutional governor of Rhode Island. After Lydia’s death in 1801, Theodore m 2nd Esther Bowen Millard, daughter of Rev. Noah Millard and Hannah Bowen, on 18 June 1803. Theodore died in Providence at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Stephen Tillinghast.

Children of Lydia Fenner and Theodore Foster:

  1. Theodesia [b 24 Dec. 1771; d 24 Sep 1839] m Stephen Tillinghast.

  2. Augusta Sophia [b 07 Apr. 1773; d before 1780].

  3. Theodore Dwight [b 10 Sep. 1780; d 1802].

Lineage:
Arthur | Thomas | Arthur | Lydia

Sources:
1. Theodore Foster’s gravestone at Findagrave.com, no. 7254348
2. Martha Benns, Notes on the Fenner Family of R.I. (1941), p. 11.
3. Chad Brown Memorial, p. 128.
4. Richard M. Bayles, History of Providence County, Rhode Island (1891), pp. 629–630: Archive.org