William John Foster

William John Foster (13 January 1831 – 16 August 1909) was a politician and Supreme Court judge in colonial New South Wales, Attorney General from 1877 to 1878.

[2] Foster arrived in Sydney in August 1854, and for the first three years of his residence in New South Wales devoted himself to agricultural pursuits.

[2] In December 1877 Foster resigned as Crown Prosecutor, and became Attorney-General in the Farnell ministry, with a seat in the Legislative Council.

Retiring with his colleagues in December 1878, he again took office in October 1881, being Minister of Justice in the Parkes Administration from that date till January 1883, when the Government resigned.

[3][4] Foster was made Queen's Counsel in 1886,[5] and in the following January he again took office as Attorney-General under Sir Henry Parkes, but resigned in May 1887, on the ground that his prior claim to the vacant Puisne Judgship had been slighted.