As the Colonial Patriots geared up for war, George Washington asked if there was anyone in Central Massachusetts that he could rely upon. He was assured that there was a Mr. Foster known for his patriotism and fidelity. This information is extracted from a display case at Foster Hill in Brookfield, Massachusetts, written by Geraldine Foty. I am indebted to my distant cousin, Eleanor Woodason, also a Foster descendant, who took the pictures for me.

Jedediah Foster was born in Andover, Massachusetts, on 10 October 1726. He died in 1779 of a stroke at the age of 53. Jedediah was a Captain and Major in the French and Indian War and was aide de camp to Joseph Dwight, who led the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston in the attack on Louisburgh in 1745, where Dwight received a battlefield promotion to Brigadier General. 

Five years later, Jedediah married Brigadier General Joseph Dwight’s daughter, Dorothy Dwight. General Dwight built a house later known as Foster House, where Jedediah lived for most of his life. His advice was sought by many people who lined up in their carriages on Foster Hill to consult him. The old house burned down in 1901.

Jedediah served in the army for two months in the winter of 1775-76 in Captain Selah Heart’s company, Colonel Erastus Wolcot’s regiment, according to Volume 5 of the book series Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War. [SAR Editors note: this service is believed to belong to a younger man of the same name]. One of the displays at Foster Hill states he was a Colonel in the Revolution, but the author of this biography cannot confirm that. This plaque shows there is a DAR chapter named for him. Perhaps his more significant contribution to the Revolution was through his civilian positions. He was Justice of the Peace from 1754 to 1775, Judge of Probate for Worcester county in 1775, and Judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1776. He presided over the trial of Bathsheba Spooner, who was tried for murdering her husband by hiring two British prisoners at large to throw him down a well. She was found guilty and hanged on 2 July 1778, the last woman executed in Massachusetts. He was also a legislator and a member of the Provincial Congress in 1774 and 1775, where he served on committees for defense and safety, tax collection, postal service, and government income. 

In August 1774, he was a delegate to a convention at Mrs. Stearns Tavern in Worcester. They agreed that allegiance to King George was nullified if the Colonial Charter was withdrawn without the Colony’s consent. Later in 1774, he was appointed to the Governor’s Council but denied seating by British Governor Gage for his opposition to restricting the liberty of the colonies.

Perhaps his greatest contribution to the Revolution was drafting the Massachusetts Constitution, which had three new principles: 1. The separation of three powers – legislative, judicial, and administrative. 2. The ability to override the Governor’s veto by a 2/3 vote of both houses, and 3. The idea is that revenue bills should originate in the House of Representatives, all first found in the Massachusetts Constitution. In 1776, Brookfield approved a State convention to frame a new constitution and elected Jedediah Foster as a delegate to the same. The convention appointed him to the committee to draft the instrument subsequently adopted by the people.

The oral tradition, handed down from generation to generation, seems to confirm the fact that although John Adams may have given valuable assistance, the draft of the white paper in the form nearest that which finally emerged was written by Judge Foster’s hand in Foster’s House on Foster’s Hill. That State constitution, more than any other, was copied by the Federal Convention in framing the Constitution of the United States.

The final resting place of Judge Jedediah Foster, an American Patriot of the Revolutionary War, is in the Indian Hill Cemetery, Brookfield, Massachusetts.