Eli Foote

Eli Foote,6 (Daniel,5 Nathaniel,4,3,2,1):

Eli Foote, was born 1747 at Guilford, New London county, Connecticut to Daniel Foote and Margaret Parsons. [Foote Family; Mem. Samuel E. Foote, John P. Foote]

"Mr. Eli Foote died in North Carolina, September 8, 1792, aged 44 years, 10 months, 9 days." Buried at Dickinson Family Cemetery, Winton, Hertford county, North Carolina. [Winton;g.s., findagrave;52033114] "One block from the courthouse" Ancestry.com transcriptions

Cenotaph in the [Foote-Ward Cemetery in Guildford, New Haven county, Connecticut]. Graves of this family recoreded at findagrave

• [His mother, when she died, was 44 years, 10 months and 2 days of age. Contributor: Jean Wilson findagrave;48841367]

He married Roxana Ward, only daughter of Gen. Andrew Ward, of Guilford, New Haven county, Connecticut, October 11, 1772.

His widow, Mrs. Roxana Ward Foote, died at Guilford, Connecticut October 31, 1840, aged 90. [Foote Family; Foote-Ward Cem.]

Eli Foote's gravestone, Dickinson Family Cemetery, Winton, North Carolina

Travels during wholesale shipping business

• Cuba
• Jamaica
• Mogadore

Children

1. Harriet Foote, born July 28, 1773. Died single, April 19, 1842.
2. Roxana Foote, born September 10, 1775. Died 1816. Married Lyman Beecher.
3. Andrew Ward Foote, born November 9, 1776. Died 1794.
4. Wiliam Henry Foote, born September 8, 1778. Died 1793.
5. Martha Foote, born September 23, 1781.
6. John Parsons Foote, born June 26, 1783. Died 1865. West into business with his uncle John. Settled and became a "booster" of Cincinnati, Ohio.
7. Mary Ward Foote, born August 7, 1785. Died in 1813. Married John James Hubbard, "a merchant of the Island of Jamaica," [.
8. Samuel Edmund Foote, born 1787. Died 1858. [Memoirs of the Life of Samuel E. Foote, written by his brother, John P.]
9. George Augustus Foote, born 1789. Died 1878
10. Catharine Foote, born 1792. Died 1811.

Biography

Eli Foote was born in Colchester, Connecticut, a descendant of Nathaniel Foote who settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1640. Eli was trained to be a lawyer but eventually became a merchant in Guilford, trading goods originating in the West Indies. He was a Tory and Episcopalian, but was tolerated by his Patriot friends and family during the Revolutionary War. He was learned and gifted in storytelling. Part of the "St. Pumpkin's Day Ode," which he wrote in 1777 to amuse his friends goes like this:

On this great day I mean to dine
On roasted goose and mutton fine
To drink a toast to George our King
And pray that Rebels soon may swing.
If tired with gloomy cares or sick
Of all the pleasures of East Creek
Your Toryship will condescend
To bring your wife and see your friend.
To what my table does afford
You shall be welcome as a Lord.

Eli married Roxanna Ward on October 11, 1772, and they had 10 children. He died of yellow fever on September 8, 1792 in Winton, North Carolina, where he was trying to secure the prosecution of thieves who had broken into his business there and stolen a considerable portion of his inventory. His widow Roxanna and their 10 children were left penniless and went to live with her father, General Andrew Ward, a Revolutionary War officer. His name is recorded on a monument erected in the Foote-Ward Cemetery in Guilford, Connecticut, where his wife and many of his children were buried.

• findagrave;52033114

Sources

• Foote Genealogy, Abram Foote
• Foote History, Goodyear
• https://generalandrewwardcemeteryassoc.wordpress.com/eli-foote/
• Thomas Paramore, "Merchants Foote" North Carolina History.