Eliza Clayland Tomlinson Foster
Eliza Clayland Tomlinson Foster (1788-1855) was born in Wilmington, Delaware and raised by her deceased mother's family-the Claylands in Baltimore. She is best known for being an early settler of Pittsburgh and the mother of Morrison Foster and composer and lyricist Stephen Foster.
Eliza Clayland Tomlinson Foster
18 January 1855 (aged 66)
The mother of Stephen Collins Foster.
Charlotte Susanna Foster (1809 - 1829), Anne Eliza Foster Buchanan (1812 - 1891), Henry Baldwin Foster (1816 - 1870), Henrietta Angelica Foster Thornton (1819 - 1879), Dunning McNair Foster (1821 - 1856), Morrison Foster (1823 - 1904), Stephen Foster (1826–1864)
Joseph Tomlinson, father; John and Joseph Tomlinson, half-brothers[1]
Early life[edit]
Foster lived in Wilmington, Delaware until her marriage.[1] Her family was part of the first group of settlers on the eastern coast of Maryland. She could be considered an orphan since after her birth her father had remarried after her mother's death and moved to Kentucky.[1]
She was considered as being part of "an aristocratic family". The Claylands and Tomlinsons were some of the first families that settled in that area of Delaware. Stephen Foster is assumed to have gotten his "poetic temperament" from her. Her mother's family, the Claylands were Episcopalians and had settled in America after leaving England in 1670. A biographer described the Claylands as slaveholders, wealthy and active in political and social life during the American Revolution.[1]
Family[edit]
Eliza had some other familial relationships. Her first cousin (or aunt) was Sarah Tomlinson, wife to Oliver Evans, Eliza was visiting Sarah when she met William Barclay foster. Oliver Evans was an engineer and Eliza's son Morrison was employed by Evans. at one point.[4][5][1]