Robert Coleman Foster I

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Robert Coleman Foster I was a prominent Nashville, Tennessee attorney and politician. Born in Virginia on July 8, 1769, he settled near Bardstown, Kentucky before moving his family to Nashville. He was one of Nashville's earliest residents, and one of the original twelve trustees of Davidson Academy, which eventually became Peabody College, and eventually part of Vanderbilt University.

Foster was elected to the Tennessee General Assembly where he was Speaker of the House in 1806. He was elected Speaker of the Senate in 1813, 1825, 1829, and 1835, and was a candidate for governor in 1815 and 1817, running unsuccessfully against Joseph McMinn.

Notably, Foster was also the father of United States Senator Ephraim H. Foster, who, like his father, was a prominent Nashville attorney and politician. Foster died on September 27, 1844, and is buried in the Nashville City Cemetery.

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